i like this

flowfield unity

(hat tip to bifurcated rivets)

from 2003

the fcc wants to fine abc for showing buttocks on nypd blue. aren't there OTHER things they could worry about? have a rash of 'kids' who saw the program in question in 2003, grown up to be mass murderers? has the country gone off of the deep end? well YES it has but i most seriously doubt it was because of an ass-shot on nypd blue in 2003. (it's because of the good ol' white boy network lead by king george. and they all have TIGHT asses, even the flabby ones)

US network faces $1m nudity fine
US television network ABC may have to pay a fine of $1.4m (£707,000) for airing an episode of NYPD Blue which depicted female nudity.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said the 2003 show had "multiple, close-up views" of a woman's buttocks before the US watershed.
The FCC deems "sexual or excretory activities" shown in an "offensive" way before 2200 as indecent.
ABC has rejected the claims, saying the buttocks are not a sexual organ.
The proposed penalty has been imposed on all 52 of ABC's stations who broadcast the episode. .........

put this on the list

of yet ANOTHER absurd AND DANGEROUS thing we're allowing king george to get away with
Disgraced Warmonger Wolfowitz to Chair US Panel on Arms Control
Posted by GottaLaff , Cliff Schecter's Blog
When in doubt, put a corrupt thug in charge of delicate matters to further illegal causes, encourage conflict, and create more alienation from the US.
Paul "Spit On My Comb" Wolfowitz has a brand new job!
Paul Wolfowitz, an architect of the Iraq war who was forced to resign from the World Bank because of an ethics scandal, will chair a U.S. advisory panel on arms control, the State Department said on Thursday.
How wise, hiring WolfaHalfWitz for a position that he will no doubt use to bungle and/or further endanger the U.S. Well, at least he'll be able to afford a new comb.
The former deputy secretary of defense and advocate of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq will head the State Department's International Security Advisory Board, which gives the department independent advice on arms control, disarmament, international security and other matters.
Wolfowitz was forced to resign as president of the World Bank last year after a bank panel found he broke several of its rules by involving himself in the promotion of his companion Shaha Riza, a Middle East expert at the bank.
............

we'll do what we want

when we want and how we want. AND

you'll effing LIKE IT
so what if we blow up your country. so what if we bring you 'democracy'. so what if we kill your sons and daughters. so what if we drive millions of your citizens out of their own country. so what if we kill MURDER innocents? so effing what. when we say jump - YOU SAY HOW HIGH

US quietly demands Iraq give defense contractors, US military immunity from prosecution
John Byrne and Gavin McNett
US officials are dragooning Iraq into accepting immunity for US civilian contractors in new negotiations with the Iraqi government just months after a feud over a private defense contractor exploded into an international outcry.
The Bush administration insists that Baghdad give the US "broad authority to conduct combat operations and guarantee civilian contractors specific legal protections from Iraqi law, according to administration and military officials," a front page story in Friday's New York Times reports.............

scientific whaling?

no, it's not. it's whale killing specifically for sushi, sashmi and for all i know, whale b-b-q. putting everything else aside (moral reasons i mean), a lot of whales are endangered OR recovering (if taken off the endangered list). there are bans on hunting to protect them. japan doesn't obey them.
A Clash of Views On Whale-Loving
Creature Is a Delicacy in Japan, a Cause in the West

By Blaine Harden Washington Post Foreign Service
TOKYO, Jan. 25 -- At Ohana, a restaurant not far from the Japanese parliament in central Tokyo, a small plate of chilled raw whale costs $17.50. Grilled whale is $9, while whale in a hot pot goes for $29. The mammalian flesh for these dishes -- available year-round and served mostly to businessmen older than 40 -- comes from Japan's annual whale hunt, carried out, the government here declares, to advance "scientific" knowledge of cetaceans...............
.............The Japanese originally announced that they would take up to 50 humpback whales in the current hunt in addition to 800 minke and 50 fin whales. The humpback kill would have been the first in more than 40 years for a recovering species whose numbers had been reduced by about 90 percent by industrial whaling.
Under pressure from the United States and the European Union, where the humpback holds a special place in environmentalists' hearts, Japan backed away from that hunt. But the fleet is proceeding against the rest of the prey. ..

i've quoted it before and here it is again, from star trek iv: the voyage home
scotty to admiral kirk: 'Admiral, there be whales here'
and here is the amazing judy collins singing farewell to tarwathie accompanied by visions of whales.........

oh no they di'ent

faux 'news' soooooooooooo really di'ent say this shite............DID THEY?
from greg mitchell's blog;

Fox News: U.S. economy tanking because of fear of Democrats taking White House

Jon Stewart tonight played clips of various "experts" on Fox declaring that the main culprit behind our sinking financial picture and the selloffs on Wall Street is fear of a Democratic victory in November. Stewart's comment: "How bad do the Democrats have to be to pre-fuck the economy?"He also played statements by numerous pundits hailing Fred Thompson's chances last summer, closing with Bill Kristol calling him truly "formidable." Stewart: "Oh, Bill Kristol, aren't you ever right?" .......

just when you thought it was safe

(to make a phone call or send an email or a real live written letter) HE'SSSSSSSSSSSSS BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACKKKKKKKKKKK

the big dick that is
Cheney Pushes for Renewed Wiretap Powers
WASHINGTON - US Vice President Dick Cheney called on Congress Wednesday to make permanent legislation permitting security agencies to tap foreign telephone calls and emails in the US “war on terror.”As Congress geared up to weigh new legislation permitting the warrantless wiretaps, Cheney said it was “urgent” to renew and update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) “immediately and permanently” before a key modification from last year expires on February 1.
But the legislation could stall over objections to the White House’s desire to grant US telecommunications companies which assist in the wiretaps retroactive immunity for possible rights violations.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told the White House Wednesday that a short-term extension would likely be necessary first......

gibson says he's sorry

but we all know that 'apology' just about killed him AND he didn't mean an effing word of it. what an insincere piece of steamin' shite

(video at link)
Gibson: ‘To anyone offended by my comments, I’m sorry.
On his Fox News show today, John Gibson apologized for his recent comments mocking the death of actor Heath Ledger. “I’m sorry that some took my comments as anti-gay and insensitive,” said Gibson. “Once again, to anyone offended by my comments, I’m sorry.” ......

(original posting)

he got what he deserved

and they're right, HE AIN'T JIMMY STEWART and this AIN'T mr smith goes to washington

Lawmaker censured for kicking photog
Colorado House Censures Lawmaker for Kicking Newspaper Photographer

STEVEN K. PAULSON

The state House voted Thursday to censure a lawmaker who kicked a newspaper photographer taking his picture — and refused to apologize. The resolution, passed 62-1, was the first censure in the history of the Legislature. It says Rep. Douglas Bruce "failed to uphold the honor and dignity of the House of Representatives and reflects poorly on the state."
Bruce, a Colorado Springs Republican, kicked Rocky Mountain News photographer Javier Manzano for snapping his photo during the traditional session-opening prayer on Jan. 14. Bruce was sworn in as a midterm replacement hours later............



...........As the censure was read, Bruce stood in front of his colleagues toward the side of the chamber, his lips pursed and his arms folded.
He then delivered a speech, again blaming the photographer and comparing himself to Jimmy Stewart in the 1939 movie "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." Stewart played a freshman congressman who punches out a photographer and becomes a hero after launching a filibuster and collapsing on the floor.
Republican Rep. Al White responded: "Representative Bruce, you're not Jimmy Stewart, this is not a 1939 movie. This is today. Your actions were wrong."
The lone vote against censure was by Rep. Kevin Lundberg, a Republican who said Bruce deserved to be punished but that censure was too strong..........

(my original posting)

oh shite

now we're going to invade 'help' ANOTHER country? oh shite shite shite

U.S. ready to fight militants with Pakistani troops
By Andrew Gray
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States would be willing to send troops to Pakistan to fight alongside the South Asian country's forces against Islamist militants, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday.
Gates said Pakistan had not requested such a move and Washington had not presented proposals to Pakistan's leaders. But he made clear the United States was open to providing more direct assistance.
"We remain ready, willing and able to assist the Pakistanis and to partner with them, to provide additional training, to conduct joint operations, should they desire to do so," Gates told reporters at the Pentagon.
The United States, waging wars in Iraq and Afghanistan against Islamist militants that have strained its military, is increasingly concerned about the rise of insurgents in Pakistan's tribal areas bordering Afghanistan........

very interesting

(and i do NOT promote the destruction or hacking of other's websites. no, not even scientologist ones). however, i DO promote free speech and i DO support saying anything you want about scientology without fear of being sued. as i said, if their 'religion' is the MOST PERFECT one in the entire universe, why be afraid to share it with all? oh, cause 'all' doesn't chip in some moolah?

Anonymous hackers take on the Church of Scientology
Posted by Robert Vamosi
A copyright violation claim by the Church of Scientology against the posting of one of its videos to YouTube has prompted a full-on assault by a group calling itself Anonymous.
The video, in which Tom Cruise proclaims, in part, that Scientologists are the only experts on the mind, was pulled by YouTube over the weekend at the request of the Church of Scientology as part of a long-standing effort to keep copyrighted material from appearing on the Internet. Other sites have since posted the Cruise video in full.
In response to the take-down of the Cruise video, a group of vigilantes--calling themselves Anonymous, or Anon--have retaliated against what they consider to be Internet censorship. The group includes computer experts capable of Internet mischief. In recent days, local chapter sites for the Church of Scientology have been defaced, and in some cases denial of service attacks have also prevented access to the same sites. Real-world attacks have included fax-spamming those same offices..........

taxi to the dark side

i'm not sure i can watch this movie. i went to the website and even the music was going to make me cry
Documentary highlights detainee abuses in Iraq, Afghanistan
Nick Langewis and David Edwards Published: Thursday January 24, 2008
"'Soldiers are dying. Get the information.' That's all you're told: Get the information." --Pfc. Damien Corsetti
Oscar-nominated documentary "Taxi to the Dark Side" highlights what prisoners of war in Iraq and Afghanistan endure as it tells the story of Dilawar, a 22-year-old Afghan cab driver who was killed while in American custody.
Dilawar and his passengers had been stopped near Bagram Air Base and detained under suspicion of involvement in a rocket attack against US forces. Dilawar's prompt death was ruled a homicide due to evidence of blunt force trauma inflicted while he was in custody at Bagram.
Dilawar's three passengers would be deemed no threat to American forces... after fifteen months at Guantanamo Bay.
"This is a kid who'd never spent...a night away from home in his life," says writer/director Alex Gibney, "until he was taken forcibly from his taxicab, thrown into Bagram Prison, and five days later he was dead."........

who is one of THE most tasteless people

on this entire planet? faux new's own;
(you know i'd write to faux but we all know they don't give a flyin' f**k)
Fox News Host Gibson Cracks a Series of Tasteless Jokes About Heath Ledger's Death
Posted by Matt Corley, Think Progress
Opening his radio show with funeral music yesterday, Fox News host John Gibson callously mocked the death of actor Heath Ledger, calling him a "weirdo" with a "serious drug problem."
Playing an audio clip of the iconic quote, "I wish I knew how to quit you" from Ledger's gay romance movie Brokeback Mountain, Gibson disdainfully quipped, "Well, he found out how to quit you." Laughing, Gibson then played another clip from Brokeback Mountain in which Ledger said, "We're dead," followed by his own, mocking "We're dead" before playing the clip again.
Throughout the course of the show, Gibson continued to bring up Ledger's death while discussing current events, jokingly claiming that current events may have caused him to commit suicide.......

chief marie smith jones

goodbye and thank you

Eyak language dies with its last speaker

The last traditional speaker of the Eyak language died yesterday, making the language extinct. Eyak Chief Marie Smith Jones was 89 years old. She was the last person to have learned the language the traditional way, taught as a child from her parents.
Her long-time language documentarian, linguist Dr. Michael Krauss began working with her in 1962. He says Chief Marie kept the language going for many years after her older sister died in the early 1990s.............

Last Native speaker of Eyak language is dead at 89

Marie Smith Jones was a well-known activist and leader
By DEBRA McKINNEY

Chief Marie Smith Jones, the last full-blooded Eyak and last Native speaker of the Eyak language, died Monday at her Fairview apartment.

She was 89.
According to her son, Leonard Smith, she was found in her bed. Her family believes she died in her sleep.
"Everyone is like, she not in pain anymore," said granddaughter Sherry Smith. "Because she has been in pain a lot."
Smith Jones was well-known in Alaska and beyond as an activist, and a feisty one. She took on her own Native corporation in a fight against clear-cutting on ancestral lands near Cordova. She oversaw the repatriation of bones when the Smithsonian Institution was forced to give them back. And she spoke at a United Nations conference on indigenous peoples. ........

(picture: alaska public radio network)

i love al gore

and i sure do wish he was running (even though he DID already WIN)

Gore endorses gay marriage
Nick Juliano
In a video quietly released on his Web site last week, former Vice President Al Gore came out strongly in favor of gay marriage.
"I think that gay men and women ought to have the same rights as heterosexual men and women, to make contracts, to have hospital visiting rights, to join together in marriage," Gore said. "And I don’t understand why it is considered by some people to be a threat to heterosexual marriage to allow it by gays and lesbians. Shouldn’t we be promoting that kind of faithfulness and loyalty to one’s partner regardless of sexual orientation?
During his unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2000, Gore said he supported domestic partner benefits for gays and lesbians but opposed "changing the institution of marriage as it is presently understood -- between a man and a woman.".......

i drink coffee

lots and lots of coffee. i love coffee. black, no sugar. unadulterated. unadorned. strong. hot (although i'll drink lukewarm if it's an emergency). i have a coffee with me ALWAYS from the time i awaken (usually 12:30 am) until 10:00 am (sunday through thursday) and as long as i'm up (friday and saturday). i love the taste, i love the smell. i know good coffee and i know bad coffee. i know pod coffee and instant and brewed.



there is NOTHING like brewed coffee. nothing. i remember my noni's kitchen. there was ALWAYS a coffee pot (you know the kind i mean. a PERCOLATOR. yes, i said PERCOLATOR) on one of the burners. i grew up drinking coffee (when i stayed with her that is. my parents didn't give me coffee as a child). she used to get a big bowl (the italian slang for that is scidella - skee dell ah - i don't really know the spelling) and put a tiny bit of coffee in a tiny bit of sugar AND fill the rest with warm milk. she used to serve toasted italian bread with it, slathered with butter. you dunked that bread in the coffee. (in all fairness, she'd do the same with tea too every once in a while). my mouth is watering right now............mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm......



anyway, i read this article yesterday. i got so mad i wanted to bitch slap someone across the fact (not to worry, i didn't). $11,000 for a machine that 'BREWS' ONE cup of coffee? $20,000 for another machine that makes ONE cup at a time? having to wait YEARS to become sensai and zen with the coffee machine??????????? are these people seriously F**KING NUTS? go to effing wal-mart and buy A PERCOLATOR if you effing want A GOOD CUP OF COFFEE. they talk about 'brewed' coffee like it's something new and something different. wtf????????? what hath we become? i can see those trendy white yuppie assholes lining up for a steamin' cup - as i write this (and that vein is standing out in my neck)


At Last, a $20,000 Cup of Coffee
By OLIVER SCHWANER-ALBRIGHT

WITH its brass-trimmed halogen heating elements, glass globes and bamboo paddles, the new contraption that is to begin making coffee this week at the Blue Bottle Café here looks like a machine from a Jules Verne novel, a 19th-century vision of the future.
Called a siphon bar, it was imported from Japan at a total cost of more than $20,000. The cafe has the only halogen-powered model in the United States, and getting it here required years of elliptical discussions with its importer, Jay Egami of the Ueshima Coffee Company.
“If you just want equipment you’re not ready,” Mr. Egami said in an interview. But, he added, James Freeman, the owner of the cafe, is different: “He’s invested time. He’s invested interest. He is ready.”
Professionals have long been willing to pay prices in the five figures for the perfect espresso machine, but the siphon bar does not make espresso. It makes brewed coffee, as does another high-end coffee maker, the $11,000 Clover, which makes one cup at a time. Together, they signal the resurgence of brewing among the most obsessive coffee enthusiasts...............

by the way, we have a flavia creation 400 at work. it's a 'brew by pack' machine (not pods, but little foil packet things). I LOVE IT! we get free coffee, tea and hot chocolate. each floor in each wing has it's own pantry with it's own flavia machine. i like it so much, i was thinking of buying one (the home model of course) for myself. there are so many choices for both teas and coffees and chocolates)

picture: Peter DaSilva for The New York Times - The Japanese siphon bar at the Blue Bottle Café in San Francisco.

(the flavia pic is from the flavia website)

stories like these aren't headlines any more

just yesterday there was another one and the day before as well (where i believe at least 7 died in a bombing AT A FUNERAL). i'm not going to let it go and i don't think this country should let it go either. we're DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE

At Least 15 Iraqis Die As Building Explodes
Attack Highlights Problems in North

By Joshua Partlow Washington Post Foreign Service
BAGHDAD, Jan. 23 -- A building rigged with explosives detonated Wednesday in Mosul, creating a thunderous blast that killed at least 15 people in the northern Iraqi city, which has become a gathering point and growing target for Sunni insurgents.
The late-afternoon explosion, which also wounded at least 132 people, took place as Iraqi soldiers were investigating reports that weapons had been stockpiled in the three-story building, located in a densely populated area of western Mosul near a soft-drink factory, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials.
The dead consisted of 12 Iraqi citizens and three Iraqi soldiers, the U.S. military reported. Emergency services worked into the evening to take the injured to the hospital...........

the funniest thing i've seen in a LONGGGGGGGGGGGG time

here is my original posting with a link to the video of tom cruise being, well, a PERFECT scientologist
and here is the jerry o'connell video: AN ABSOLUTE MUST SEE

this MUST stop

and it must stop now. look at this picture: Tears are wiped from the face of a 9-month-old following her circumcision.

look at that baby's eyes.........

Photo: Stephanie Sinclair

(for the record, i am NOT for male circumcisions either)

however, when it's done to girls and women, it is outright mutilation AND further - it absolutely eliminates ANY chance of 'pleasure' . that is unacceptable to me. for women to be treated this way. for women to do this to OTHER women. for ANYONE to do this to a woman.

A Cutting Tradition

By SARA CORBETT

When a girl is taken — usually by her mother — to a free circumcision event held each spring in Bandung, Indonesia, she is handed over to a small group of women who, swiftly and yet with apparent affection, cut off a small piece of her genitals. Sponsored by the Assalaam Foundation, an Islamic educational and social-services organization, circumcisions take place in a prayer center or an emptied-out elementary-school classroom where desks are pushed together and covered with sheets and a pillow to serve as makeshift beds. The procedure takes several minutes. There is little blood involved. Afterward, the girl’s genital area is swabbed with the antiseptic Betadine. She is then helped back into her underwear and returned to a waiting area, where she’s given a small, celebratory gift — some fruit or a donated piece of clothing — and offered a cup of milk for refreshment. She has now joined a quiet majority in Indonesia, where, according to a 2003 study by the Population Council, an international research group, 96 percent of families surveyed reported that their daughters had undergone some form of circumcision by the time they reached 14. .........

and here is some giant steamin' bullshite if i ever heard it:

...According to Lukman Hakim, the foundation’s chairman of social services, there are three “benefits” to circumcising girls.
“One, it will stabilize her libido,” he said through an interpreter. “Two, it will make a woman look more beautiful in the eyes of her husband. And three, it will balance her psychology.”.........

ivaw

nothing needs to be added by me

One year from now
As we enter 2008, please stop for a moment and consider where we are now, and where we are going. In just over a year, America will have a new President. We will have endured a year of campaign commercials and attack ads. We'll have watched debates devoid of any real discussion of the withdrawal from Iraq that a growing number of Americans now call for. We'll have waited, for yet another year, for our leaders to find a way to say what we know in our hearts: we must leave Iraq.
But what will have changed in the next year that will make that happen?
We must face this fact: we run the serious risk that one year from today we'll be right where we are now, but with another year's worth of casualties, a year’s worth of grieving families, a year's worth of Iraqi anger and suffering built on our occupation of a country we now know was no threat to us. Ending this war in a year is different than ending it now, just as ending it now is different than ending it a year ago, or a year before that. There is a price to pay for every day that we wait.............
IRAQ VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR

it didn't stop with the two years after the war started

it's continuing now. we all KNOW king george and his court lied and are lying. we all know they're NOT little white lies either. we all know they're spit and stepped on our constitution. we all know they do what they want when they want and how they want, even if it is illegal. yet, as i continue to say, NO ONE HAS THE STONES TO STOP THEM. congress MUST impeach. they must make all of them pay for their crimes against humanity.

Study: False statements preceded war
Study: Bush, Other Officials Issued Hundreds of False Statements Before Iraq Invasion
DOUGLASS K. DANIEL AP News
A study by two nonprofit journalism organizations found that President Bush and top administration officials issued hundreds of false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks. The study concluded that the statements "were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses."
The study was posted Tuesday on the Web site of the Center for Public Integrity, which worked with the Fund for Independence in Journalism.
White House spokesman Scott Stanzel did not comment on the merits of the study Tuesday night but reiterated the administration's position that the world community viewed Iraq's leader, Saddam Hussein, as a threat...........

because this man

shared his really cool art project with a passenger on a plane, he's suddenly become a terrorist (suspect). how effed up is THAT? and of course once your name is on a list, it ain't EVER coming off (via boing boing)

Odyssey of State Capitols and State Suspicion
By KATHRYN SHATTUCK
IN a recent morning interview in a Midtown Manhattan office Ramak Fazel came across as the quintessential world citizen: tall, slim and elegant, his English tinged with an untraceable accent and peppered here and there with an Italian phrase. He also exuded the weariness of a frequent flier, having arrived the afternoon before at Newark Liberty Airport, where he was delayed for nearly three hours while United States Customs and Border Protection agents questioned him about the purpose of his trip, searched his baggage and photocopied the pages of his personal agenda..............

..................His mission was to photograph each of the nation’s 50 state capitol buildings and dispatch a postcard from each city, using postage stamps from a childhood collection. Each postcard would be mailed to the next state on his journey, where he would pick it up, continuing until he had gone full circle back to Indiana.

But there was a problem. On a flight from Sacramento, Calif., to Honolulu, Mr. Fazel described his project to a fellow passenger. He later discovered that she had reported him as suspicious — perhaps to the pilot or the Transportation Security Administration — and taken a picture of him as he slept.

hmmmmmm

wonder what THEY have to say about this

(of course THEY tout the bible, but only the passages that suit THEM)



According to the Bible, Illegal Immigrants Must Be Welcomed
Posted by Jon Ponder, Pensito Review

If you believe the Bible is the word of God -- and especially if you believe the Bible is the inerrant word of God -- you must believe this:
Leviticus (19:33-4):"And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself.".........................

and here is what is happening

because no one has the stones to impeach king george and the big dick and the rest of their court. women are dying. women are NOT educated about contraceptives. women only get ONE SIDE - ABSTINANCE.

Are U.S. Policies Killing Women?
By Michele Kort, Ms. Magazine
Even as we commemorate the landmark 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade this year, U.S. reproductive-health policies are having an inordinately negative effect outside of our borders. They're causing women to die or be maimed. Harsh words, but true.
For the past 24 years, except during the Clinton presidency, U.S. administrations have maintained a global gag rule against providing counseling or referrals for abortions at U.S.-funded clinics in developing nations. It's a rule that only thwarts safe abortions, while reducing the already limited availability of other family-planning services. The global gag rule has also led to a pullback in overseas delivery of contraceptives, according to recent testimony by Rep. Nita M. Lowey (D-N.Y.) before the House Foreign Affairs Committee: "U.S. shipments of contraceptives have ceased to 20 developing nations in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. In some areas, the largest distribution centers for contraceptives have experienced decreased access for over 50 percent of the women they serve."
Women's health and rights activists in the U.S. have spent the past two decades fighting against such actions, and advocating on behalf of global reproductive health issues. But progress has come slowly. While maternal mortality has been declining at 1 percent annually, it needs to decline by 5.5 percent a year in order to be three-quarters reduced by 2015 (one of the United Nation's Millenium Development Goals). Sounds like a lot -- but it would require just about $6.1 billion more in annual funding -- the price of three weeks of the Iraq war -- to achieve that goal. Without that commitment, more than 500,000 women will still die annually from childbirth and its complications, with an estimated 70,000 of those deaths due to unsafe abortions..........

this is sickening

and despicable. it's outrageous. it's disheartening. it's these things and so much more. we have now become those who we have fought off all along

Asylum Program Falls Short For Iraqis Aiding U.S. Forces

By Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer
Thousands of Iraqi translators have assisted U.S. forces since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, risking their lives and leaving their families vulnerable to retaliation from insurgents who see them as accomplices of American troops.
More than 250 of the interpreters working with the United States -- or with U.S. contractors -- have been killed. But the U.S. asylum program for translators seeking to leave the country has fallen far short of demand and, at times, short of what other coalition countries have offered their Iraqi staff.
This month, Denmark will complete the process of granting asylum to 120 Iraqi interpreters who worked for Danish troops in Iraq, as well as their families. "Interpreters who had been working for the Danish military were given the choice of resettling within [Iraq] with financial help, of being given jobs at Danish mission in the region, or of going to Denmark to apply for asylum with their families," said Thomas Bille Winkel, representative of the Danish Ministry of Refugee, Immigration and Integration Affairs. Most chose to go to Denmark, he said. ..........

it is january 22nd. blog for choice day

and it is the anniversary of roe v. wade. this year we've been asked why we 'vote' pro choice. well i don't think of myself as 'voting' pro choice. i just think of myself as PRO CHOICE. NO, NOT PRO ABORTION. PRO CHOICE. there is a great difference. i don't advocate abortion. i do advocate birth control and reproductive EDUCATION.

however, when a woman chooses to have an abortion, it is her right to do so. it is her right to feel safe doing so. it is her right for that choice to remain PRIVATE if it is her decision to have it so. it is her right to have a choice if there are health reasons (hers or that of the fetus). it is her right to have a choice if there are circumstances which may make having a child a tragedy. it is her choice and should be respected. it is her choice and NOT some old white rich dude's choice. it is HER choice and not YOUR GOD'S choice.

in almost all cases it is not an easy choice. but it is HER choice to make. it is HER BODY and HER MIND AND HER HEART.

we must never let back room abortions take place again. we must protect this choice we have and not let it be taken away by those who speak false words and judge us as evil. (by the way even those that 'oppose' choice have had abortions. they keep it deeply hidden because of the stigma they perceive. they keep it deeply hidden because of how their families and their men will react. well we all know many many many women who have made the choice to terminate a pregnancy. and yes, they DO come from all walks of life. all religions and all political views)

it's MY choice and i'm not letting YOU or anyone else take it from me

i got this quiz from

from the angry young man

Which Great US President Are You Most Like? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as John Kennedy 35th President, in office from 1961-1963Born: 1917 Died: 1963 (assassainated) John Kennedy 74% George Washington 67% Theodore Roosevelt 64% Franklin Roosevelt 57% Dwight Eisenhower 55% Ronald Reagan 50% Woodrow Wilson 45% Abraham Lincoln 45% Thomas Jefferson 38% Harry Truman 36% Lyndon Johnson 33%

so why isn't this on the front page

of EVERY american paper? it's shocking. it's NEWS. it is apparently VERY true. it proves there is corruption in the very organizations we use to protect us against harm AND terrorism

FBI denies file exposing nuclear secrets theft
The FBI has been accused of covering up a file detailing government dealings with a network stealing nuclear secrets
THE FBI has been accused of covering up a key case file detailing evidence against corrupt government officials and their dealings with a network stealing nuclear secrets.
The assertion follows allegations made in The Sunday Times two weeks ago by Sibel Edmonds, an FBI whistleblower, who worked on the agency’s investigation of the network.
Edmonds, a 37-year-old former Turkish language translator, listened into hundreds of sensitive intercepted conversations while based at the agency’s Washington field office.
She says the FBI was investigating a Turkish and Israeli-run network that paid high-ranking American officials to steal nuclear weapons secrets. These were then sold on the international black market to countries such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
One of the documents relating to the case was marked 203A-WF-210023. Last week, however, the FBI responded to a freedom of information request for a file of exactly the same number by claiming that it did not exist. But The Sunday Times has obtained a document signed by an FBI official showing the existence of the file.
Edmonds believes the crucial file is being deliberately covered up by the FBI because its contents are explosive. She accuses the agency of an “outright lie”.
“I can tell you that that file and the operations it refers to did exist from 1996 to February 2002. The file refers to the counterintelligence programme that the Department of Justice has declared to be a state secret to protect sensitive diplomatic relations,” she said. .,,,,,,,,

is this a vision of things to come?

Voting Not Smooth in South Carolina

By BRUCE SMITH The Associated Press
SURFSIDE BEACH, S.C. -- Nasty weather in the north and dysfunctional voting machines in one coastal county marred South Carolina's Republican primary Saturday.
Nearly 200 voting machines in Horry County didn't work at the start of voting and residents in at least one precinct were turned away when officials ran out of paper ballots.
It was not clear how many voters would be unable to make their choice known after up to 90 percent of the county's voting machines failed to turn on when polls opened at 7 a.m. ........

perhaps there really IS a devil

because this man doesn't sound human

Liberian Ex-Rebel Confesses to Killings

By JONATHAN PAYE-LAYLEH The Associated Press
MONROVIA, Liberia -- One of Liberia's most notorious rebel commanders, known as Gen. Butt Naked, has returned to the nation his troops terrorized to confess, saying he is responsible for 20,000 deaths.
Joshua Milton Blahyi, who now lives in Ghana, returned this week to face his homeland's truth and reconciliation commission, this time wearing a suit and tie. His nom de guerre is derived from his platoon's practice of charging naked into battle, a technique meant to terrify the enemy.
Other warlords, though, have refused to ask forgiveness, dismissing a commission many in Liberia see as toothless. Blahyi is urging other former killers to come forward as the country founded by freed American slaves in 1847 struggles to recover from past horrors. .........

..............Before he led his fighters into battle, wearing only a pair of lace-up boots, Blahyi said he made a human sacrifice to the devil.
The sacrifice was typically "the killing of an innocent child and plucking out the heart which was divided into pieces for us to eat," he told The Associated Press on Saturday. He appeared before the commission Jan. 15.
Between the time he made a pact with the devil circa 1980 and began his rampage and the time he stopped fighting in 1996, he said "more than 20,000 people fell victim (to me and my men). They were killed." ...........

because it's ALWAYS funny

to 'punch your wife out' after she 'disturbs' you! sure it is! a SMARTER person would have either turned their ringer off OR turned their entire cell phone off. but NOT bud. he's going to kick the shite out of his wife instead! he must be leading a hard life. you know, after spending all day investigating players on steroids and all.

i always say, you can't GET any funnier if you talk about abusing and beating your wife!
Bud Selig is casual about his spousal abuse
Posted by Michael Milici in The Clubhouse

Selig’s Call: “It’s Only My Wife, I’ll Punch Her Out”

It's not just me who thinks Bud Selig's a bad joke

Is Bud Selig Going to Have to Choke a Wife?

the king is back

(as far as i'm concerned, HE NEVER LEFT)
it's sunday with daler mehndi (my FAVORITE daler video is posted over at the reformed pirate)



(silly me, i thought cv rick was a chick magnet, but he doesn't hold a candle to daler)

i want to be the one to walk in the sun

blog for choice day is january 22nd

please join in

no keresone no water

no lights, no life
ANALYSIS: Discontent surges in Iraq
AP NEWS ANALYSIS: Al-Maliki Faces Growing Discontent, Scathing Criticism From Major Backer
HAMZA HENDAWI AP News
In the depths of a strangely cold winter in the Middle East, Iraqis complain that the lights are not on, the kerosene heaters are without fuel and the water doesn't flow — and they blame the government. And with the war nearing its fifth anniversary, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is feeling the discontent as well from the most powerful political centers in the majority Shiite community.
It's a pincer movement of domestic anger that yet again could threaten al-Maliki's hold on his Green Zone office.
"Where's the kerosene and the water?" asked Amjad Kazim, a 56-year-old Shiite who lives in eastern Baghdad. "We hear a lot of promises but we see nothing."
Little kerosene is available on the state-run market at the subsidized price of $0.52 a gallon. But the fuel can be found on the black market, where it goes for more than $3.79 a gallon...............

in our lifetime,

it will NEVER be safe in iraq. we stirred it up. we instigated this. we had NO right to invade them. i keep saying it and i'll do so in the future. i still don't understand how king george is not being made accountable for invading iraq. i don't. i don't understand how people still support the invasion. what they think. why they think we invaded iraq. saddam? no, he was never going to harm us. he harmed his own, but we harmed them MORE. hey who armed saddam in the FIRST PLACE (hint, the answer is the united states)

Violence increases and tensions rise among Iraqi Shiites
By Steve Lannen McClatchy Newspapers
BAGHDAD — A police raid Saturday on an extremist Shiite Muslim mosque thought to be the headquarters of an extremist cult capped a weekend of violence in southern Iraq, while elsewhere tensions between Iraq's Shiite-led government and renegade Shiite cleric Moqtada al Sadr continued to escalate.
Iraq's national security advisor said he was briefly taken hostage Saturday in a Baghdad mosque and implied that his captors were Sadr supporters. Mowaffak al Rubaie was released only after Iraq's interior minister, who oversees the police, intervened.
In an e-mail to McClatchy, Rubaie said that Sadr's followers "used the same tactics that they used before on Abdul Majid al Khoei." Sadrists were accused of fatally stabbing Khoei, a moderate young Shiite cleric who was considered a rival to Sadr, in 2003. A warrant for Sadr was issued in 2004, but it's never been executed, and he's denied any involvement.......

canada, it was a mistake to back down

we all know the united states DOES torture (with the consent of king george and prince big bad dick). you never should have taken us off of your list (i'm guessing you were scared we'd come and invade you and bring OUR brand of democracy as well. that includes making EVERYONE speak english)
(original posting: canada steps up to the plate)
Canada to Rewrite Manual US Criticized

By CHARMAINE NORONHA The Associated Press
TORONTO -- Canada's foreign ministry said Saturday that it will rewrite a training manual used by Canadian diplomats that lists the United States as a site of possible torture following pressure from its closest ally.
The department document, released Friday, singled out the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay. It also names Israel, Afghanistan, China, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Syria as places where inmates could face torture.
"I regret the embarrassment caused by the public disclosure of the manual used in the department's torture awareness training," Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier said in a statement issued Saturday. .........