don't say it in russian, don't say it in german

say it in broken english

one of my all time favorites, marianne faithfull





and the ballad of lucy jordan (which they used in one of my favorite movies, montenegro (if you've not seen it, give it a whirl)






and here she is doing why d'ya do it (sure not the same marianne that sang as tears go by). she sure be one pissed off babe. this is wicked NSFW








and here she is before the junk and the smokes got to her voice. don't get me wrong, i LOVE her now.

i got this from

cv rick. i changed it a bit by making it things i wouldn't do or haven't done. i also left a couple of rick's answers because they fit (the opposite way of course)

Four movies NEVER watched (4 x or ever)
1. the sound of music
2. titanic
3. mission impossible (any of ‘em)
4. casino
Four Places I have NEVER lived
1. Osan, Korea
2. Madrid, Spain
3. Spangdahlem, Germany
4. Minot, North Dakota
Four T.V. shows that I NEVER watch
1. friends
2. sex in the city
3. ANY reality show except cops
4. grey’s anatomy
Four pastime activities i never do
1. sports
2. housework
3. outside work (yard work etc. i DID mow my father’s lawn a couple of summers ago. he had just gone through hip replacement surgery and i had no choice. he asked me and he never asks for anything. i had never mowed before and if i can help it, i never will again)
4. work on cars
Four places I have NEVER lived
1. Bangkok, Thailand
2. Seoul, Korea
3. Blackfoot, Idaho
4. Minneapolis, Minnesota
Four of my NON favorite foods
1. steak
2. lobster
3. cabbage
4. brussel sprouts (the only two vegetables i do NOT like – that i am aware of)
Four places I would NOT like to visit
1. florida (flat and full of bugs. i have visited and don’t wish to return)
2. lost angeles
3. south africa
4. uae (if saudi arabia is not part of the uae, then saudi arabia too)
Four Things I am NOT looking forward to in the coming year
1. working on the october relase
2. driving in the snow
3. going on any long trips (may have to travel for work)
4. not Being completely debt free

i'm wary of this (articles of this sort i mean)

it appears john mccain may be being swiftboated. it also appears he MAY have done a few things he should NOT have done. he was 'rebuked' by the fcc and his dealings were called highly unusual.

is anyone without sin? the answer of course is NO. if these are facts, they SHOULD be brought to light. everyone should be on an equal level and we should all make our decision based on the truths. we're intelligent enough to make up our own minds.

McCain Disputed On 1999 Meeting
Broadcaster Recalls Urging FCC Contact


By James V. Grimaldi and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum Washington Post Staff Writers
Broadcaster Lowell "Bud" Paxson yesterday contradicted statements from Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign that the senator did not meet with Paxson or his lobbyist before sending two controversial letters to the Federal Communications Commission on Paxson's behalf. Paxson said he talked with McCain in his Washington office several weeks before the Arizona Republican wrote the letters in 1999 to the FCC urging a rapid decision on Paxson's quest to acquire a Pittsburgh television station.
Paxson also recalled that his lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, likely attended the meeting in McCain's office and that Iseman helped arrange the meeting. "Was Vicki there? Probably," Paxson said in an interview with The Washington Post yesterday. "The woman was a professional. She was good. She could get us meetings." .......

it's really not that white supremacists don't believe in evolution

it's that they don't know WHAT evolution is. none the less or all the more, wonder what they would think of THIS (if they had a brain that is)
DNA Study Supports African Origin of Man
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A new genetic analysis of people from around the world adds further confirmation to the African origin of humans. The study of genetic details from 938 individuals from 51 populations provides evidence of how people are related and different, researchers led by Richard M. Myers of Stanford University report in Friday's issue of the journal Science.
The team looked at variations in 650,000 sections of each of the DNA samples, providing a view of the similarities and differences between people in greater detail than had been available previously.
Scientists have long believed that modern humans first developed in Africa and spread from there to populate the rest of the world, a theory strongly supported by the new analysis, the researchers said........

would the secret service

stop screening people (for weapons) that went to see the OTHER candidates? methinks not. on the surface this is VERY frightening indeed
hell, when you go to a concert you have to go through security. i went to a BOXING MATCH and i had to go through metal detectors. i had to give up my lighters (but they let me keep my matches). i had my purse searched (i left my metal knitting needles in the car thank the goddess).
Police concerned about order to stop screening
By JACK DOUGLAS Jr.
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
DALLAS -- Security details at Barack Obama's rally Wednesday stopped screening people for weapons at the front gates more than an hour before the Democratic presidential candidate took the stage at Reunion Arena.
The order to put down the metal detectors and stop checking purses and laptop bags came as a surprise to several Dallas police officers who said they believed it was a lapse in security.
Dallas Deputy Police Chief T.W. Lawrence, head of the Police Department's homeland security and special operations divisions, said the order -- apparently made by the U.S. Secret Service -- was meant to speed up the long lines outside and fill the arena's vacant seats before Obama came on.
"Sure," said Lawrence, when asked if he was concerned by the great number of people who had gotten into the building without being checked. But, he added, the turnout of more than 17,000 people seemed to be a "friendly crowd."
The Secret Service did not return a call from the Star-Telegram seeking comment..........

yet ANOTHER bullshite 'study' involving women

(however, the author-of the article NOT the study- DOES point out the study is bullshite). i'm surprised the study was just high heels and NOT women who wear high heels while standing at a stove cooking all day..........
Does Wearing High Heels Improve a Woman's Sex Life?
Posted by Tana Ganeva, AlterNet

A study by scientists at the University of Verona found that wearing high heels tones muscles and may even improve a woman's sex life. Urologist Maria Cerruto monitored electrical activity in the pelvises of female test subjects and found that high heels strengthen pelvic muscles, increasing their ability to contract during sex.
It's pretty great when "science" tells me that something that requires minimal effort and that I already do is healthy. I can't wait for the study that finds that pizza and cheap beer, when ingested together, metabolize into vitamin C.
However, the problem with studies like these is that they generate a lot of poorly researched media hype. No doubt, there are probably a thousand other studies out there that unequivocally "prove" that wearing high heels strains your musculature, grinds your bones into dust, and permanently numbs your genitals..............

we've found the israeli jerry falwell

or 'reverend' phelps
Israeli MP blames quakes on gays
An Israeli MP has blamed parliament's tolerance of gays for earthquakes that have rocked the Holy Land recently.
Shlomo Benizri, of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Shas Party, said the tremors had been caused by lawmaking that gave "legitimacy to sodomy".
Israel decriminalised homosexuality in 1988 and has since passed several laws recognising gay rights.
Two earthquakes shook the region last week and a further four struck in November and December.
Adoption
Mr Benizri made his comments while addressing a committee of the Israeli parliament, or Knesset, about the country's readiness for earthquakes. ............

thanks to beth, cass and cain

we've found the hindi george michael and stevie nicks

my loony bun is fine benny lava:

the.......reformed....... pirate: update on the music video that's done all with knitting

the.......reformed....... pirate: update on the music video that's done all with knitting

that's why i too say - RE ELECT KEVIN KLEIN AS PRESIDENT

(oh my goddess, i laughed my ASS OFF. who said 'we' don't have a sense of humor? you guess what i mean by "WE")

Do We Really Want Another Black President After The Events Of Deep Impact?
By Kevin Henry

I am not prejudiced. Far from it. What I am—or, I should say, who I am—is a man who loves his country so deeply that he is unwilling to stand idly by while our nation allows itself to be completely annihilated by another incoming comet.
Have we learned nothing from the tragic events of 1998, when, under the watch of President Morgan Freeman, this nation was plunged into chaos, and hundreds of millions of people died at the hands of the deadly Wolf-Beiderman space rock? The mere fact that this country is even considering putting another black man, Barack Obama, in the Oval Office proves that we have not.
We can't deny the facts, people. All we will get by electing an African-American is Texas-size space particles crashing into the Earth's surface, mega-tsunamis that barrel into the Appalachian Mountains, and 6.6 billion dead people..........

a little story about

mccain and ms iseman. and it ain't pretty. i'm not so offput by the possiblity of an (alleged) affair. i'm offput A LOT by her being a lobbyist with him being a senator

come to find out the ny times had the story for a couple of MONTHS. they just now published it. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. why the wait i ax meself?

'NYT' Publishes Bombshell McCain/Lobbyist Story"
By E&P Staff
NEW YORK It had the story back in December, rumor had it, but The New York Times did not run with it until tonight: detailing some kind of relationship between Sen. John McCain and a lobbyist more than 30 years his junior. The rumors last December died down after other reports suggested that that McCain and the unnamed woman had hired Washington lawyer/fixer Bob Bennett to strong arm the Times. Howard Kurtz of The Washington Post reported then that Bennett had dealt with specific issues raised in the reporting. Whatever went down, the story never ran. Until tonight.The relationship from back in 2000 is part of a much longer story on McCain's ethic that carries multiple bylines: Jim Rutenberg, Marilyn Thompson, David Kirkpatrick and Stephen Labaton. Both McCain and the woman deny the reports, so it is interesting what changed to make the paper carry the story, quite prominently, now, at www.nytimes.com.The Times story tonight reveals: "Mr. McCain said that the relationship was not romantic and that he never showed favoritism to Ms. Iseman or her clients. 'I have never betrayed the public trust by doing anything like that,' he said. He made the statements in a call to Bill Keller, the executive editor of The New York Times, to complain about the paper’s inquiries. .........

For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk
By JIM RUTENBERG, MARILYN W. THOMPSON, DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and STEPHEN LABATON
WASHINGTON — Early in Senator John McCain’s first run for the White House eight years ago, waves of anxiety swept through his small circle of advisers.
A female lobbyist had been turning up with him at fund-raisers, visiting his offices and accompanying him on a client’s corporate jet. Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself — instructing staff members to block the woman’s access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him, several people involved in the campaign said on the condition of anonymity.
When news organizations reported that Mr. McCain had written letters to government regulators on behalf of the lobbyist’s client, the former campaign associates said, some aides feared for a time that attention would fall on her involvement.
Mr. McCain, 71, and the lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, 40, both say they never had a romantic relationship. But to his advisers, even the appearance of a close bond with a lobbyist whose clients often had business before the Senate committee Mr. McCain led threatened the story of redemption and rectitude that defined his political identity.
It had been just a decade since an official favor for a friend with regulatory problems had nearly ended Mr. McCain’s political career by ensnaring him in the Keating Five scandal. In the years that followed, he reinvented himself as the scourge of special interests, a crusader for stricter ethics and campaign finance rules, a man of honor chastened by a brush with shame......

wow, an uppity black woman! wow

we can't have that. we can't have no uppity black woman (and we all KNOW the word the caller AND bill o'wrongly WANT to use) in the white house. it's a WHITE HOUSE after all
O'Reilly: "I don't want to go on a lynching party against Michelle Obama unless there's evidence, hard facts, that say this is how the woman really feels"
.........Summary: In a discussion of recent comments made by Michelle Obama, Bill O'Reilly took a call from a listener who stated that, according to "a friend who had knowledge of her," Obama " 'is a very angry,' her word was 'militant woman.' " O'Reilly later stated: "I don't want to go on a lynching party against Michelle Obama unless there's evidence, hard facts, that say this is how the woman really feels. If that's how she really feels -- that America is a bad country or a flawed nation, whatever -- then that's legit. We'll track it down."..........

how the f**k about getting OUR troops the proper

armor, vehicles, weapons, TRAINING (and of course leaving them OUT of the middle east)? how about giving US the citizens of the united states of america that money? we NEED it. the elderly, the children, those hurt by natural disasters, the school system, health care and on and f**king on. i HATE this administration. may they be brought up on charges and sentenced appropriately

who is going to help pay people's heating bills?
their mortgage?
their grocery bills?

U.S. Payments To Pakistan Face New Scrutiny
Little Accounting for Costs To Support Ally's Troops

By Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writer
Once a month, Pakistan's Defense Ministry delivers 15 to 20 pages of spreadsheets to the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad. They list costs for feeding, clothing, billeting and maintaining 80,000 to 100,000 Pakistani troops in the volatile tribal area along the Afghan border, in support of U.S. counterterrorism efforts. No receipts are attached.
In response, the Defense Department has disbursed about $80 million monthly, or roughly $1 billion a year for the past six years, in one of the most generous U.S. military support programs worldwide. The U.S. aim has been to ensure that Pakistan remains the leading ally in combating extremism in South Asia.
But vague accounting, disputed expenses and suspicions about overbilling have recently made these payments to Pakistan highly controversial -- even within the U.S. government. ......

wicked wicked wicked cool video

#links

i'm just sayin'

original posting i did - i wonder if 'now' cares about THIS

Children Are Forty Percent of Cluster Bomb Casualtiesby TV 3 News (New Zealand)

Four out of every ten people killed or injured by cluster bombs are children, delegates at a major conference on cluster munitions being held in Wellington were told today. About 560 delegates from 122 countries have converged on Wellington for the conference which aims to draft a treaty text, to be negotiated in Dublin, Ireland, in May.
The attempt to achieve a treaty, known as the Oslo Process, was started last year by New Zealand and six other countries.
Opening the conference, Disarmament Minister Phil Goff said a strong declaration on cluster bombs at the conference would mark a pivotal step in getting the weapons banned.
More than half of the 76 states in the world that stockpile cluster munitions are taking part in the negotiations, along with a majority of the weapon producers.
However, major producers such as the US, Russia, China and Pakistan have not joined the process and have no observers at the conference.

and so you don't forget:

Special Report: Clinton vs. Obama on the Cluster Bomb Vote
(updated below - includes full text of Senate Amendment No. 4882; update II: copy of Senate Roll Call Votes.)
.......
But in the autumn of 2006, there was a chance to take a step in the right direction: Senate Amendment No. 4882, an amendment to a Pentagon appropriations bill that would have banned the use of cluster bombs in civilian areas.
Senator Obama of Illinois voted IN FAVOR of the ban.
Senator Clinton of New York voted AGAINST the ban.
Analysts say Clinton did not want to risk appearing "soft on terror," as it would have harmed her electibility.........

i have ALWAYS liked the little sparrow

now i like her EVEN MORE
Edith Piaf, superspy
Posted by Cory Doctorow
Marilyn sez, "The Germans loved Edith Piaf so much they let her travel freely in occupied France, and even let her sing for French P.O.W.s. She staged photo ops with the prisoners and later had the pix made into passport photos which she smuggled into the camp during a return visit." During that visit, says Piaf's sister-in-law Christie Laume, the "Little Sparrow" gained permission to have her picture taken with the prisoners. Piaf returned to France with the photos of the prisoners and, with the help of some unknown Resistance members, quickly had the images enlarged and used for passports. Within weeks, Piaf returned to perform at the camp again, smuggling these passports to the prisoners. Laume could not say exactly how the scheme was hatched, or how the passports were used. It seems Piaf took more than one secret to the grave with her. That being said, Piaf did explain to Laume why she risked her life to save others. Link (Thanks, Marilyn!) .................
(hat tip: boing boing
edith piaf's paris

c'mon now eloisa, you already KNOW the answer to your question!

because it's a GOLF course for the RICH WHITE GOOD OL' BOYS. that's why there is NO border fence. poor people from south of the border will NEVER cross a GOLF COURSE you silly goose! they have 'guard pros' on duty
the rich just get richer (AND whiter)

Homeland Security Won't Explain Why the Mexican Border Wall Bypasses the Rich and Connected
By Melissa del Bosque , Texas Observer.
As the U.S. Department of Homeland Security marches down the Texas border serving condemnation lawsuits to frightened landowners, Brownsville resident Eloisa Tamez, 72, has one simple question. She would like to know why her land is being targeted for destruction by a border wall, while a nearby golf course and resort remain untouched.
Tamez, a nursing director at the University of Texas at Brownsville, is one of the last of the Spanish land grant heirs in Cameron County. Her ancestors once owned 12,000 acres. In the 1930s, the federal government took more than half of her inherited land, without paying a cent, to build flood levees.
Now Homeland Security wants to put an 18-foot steel and concrete wall through what remains.
While the border wall will go through her backyard and effectively destroy her home, it will stop at the edge of the River Bend Resort and golf course, a popular Winter Texan retreat two miles down the road. The wall starts up again on the other side of the resort.
"It has a golf course and all of the amenities," Tamez says. "There are no plans to build a wall there. If the wall is so important for security, then why are we skipping parts?"
Along the border, preliminary plans for fencing seem to target landowners of modest means and cities and public institutions such as the University of Texas at Brownsville, which rely on the federal government to pay their bills.......

it's NOT the sentence he deserved

but at least he GOT sentenced. will king george pardon HIM as well?
Defense Contractor Sentenced to 12 Years for Bribery
GOP Campaign Contributor Wilkes Linked to Former Representative Cunningham

By Dan Eggen Washington Post Staff Writer
Brent R. Wilkes, a California defense contractor and prominent GOP campaign contributor, was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison yesterday for lavishing a Republican congressman with money, prostitutes and other bribes in exchange for nearly $90 million in work from the Pentagon.
Wilkes, 53, was convicted in November of 13 felony crimes including bribery, conspiracy and fraud for giving the gifts to former representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.), who is serving an eight-year prison term for accepting millions in bribes from Wilkes and others.
The sentence by U.S. District Judge Larry Burns in San Diego was far smaller than the 25-year term federal prosecutors had sought or the 60-year term urged by federal probation officers. U.S. Attorney Karen P. Hewitt said nonetheless that Wilkes "has earned every day of the sentence he received" and that the prison term "reflects the egregiousness of the corrupt conduct." .........

wow - nothingness

when i get a migraine, this would be PERFECT (i don't normally suffer from them. at least not frequently. perhaps once or twice a year. they ARE debilitating though)

Their Deepest, Darkest Discovery
Scientists Create a Black That Erases Virtually All Light

By Rick Weiss Washington Post Staff Writer
Black is getting blacker.
Researchers in New York reported this month that they have created a paper-thin material that absorbs 99.955 percent of the light that hits it, making it by far the darkest substance ever made -- about 30 times as dark as the government's current standard for blackest black.
The material, made of hollow fibers, is a Roach Motel for photons -- light checks in, but it never checks out. By voraciously sucking up all surrounding illumination, it can give those who gaze on it a dizzying sensation of nothingness.
"It's very deep, like in a forest on the darkest night," said Shawn-Yu Lin, a scientist who helped create the material at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. "Nothing comes back to you. It's very, very, very dark." .......

i think we can, i think we can

I KNOW WE CAN

Obama by the Numbers: Twice-Told Tales, and Nine in a Row

By Dana Milbank

HOUSTON, Feb. 19 In the lavatory aboard Barack Obama's campaign plane, a cartoon shows the Clintons attempting to roast Obama in a cauldron. Bill stirs, Hillary adds salt and pepper. But Obama is smiling, and all that emerges from the pot are bubbles labeled "Hope."

For Obama, life seems to be imitating art lately. The Clintons in the past couple of weeks have done all they could to cook him up into an airy souffle, a candidate so light in substance that he collapses when speared. They exposed him as a guy who copies others' speeches and makes lofty pledges only to break them.
And yet: The Obama Souffle continues to rise.
Obama scored another convincing victory Tuesday in the Wisconsin primary, bringing his tally to nine straight wins in the past two weeks. The victories gave him a very real lead in delegates and fresh momentum approaching the March 4 primaries in Ohio and here in Texas. ..........

the little engine that could

(and of course i couldn't resist the ny post headlines)

p e r f e c t

(shout out ONCE AGAIN to bifurcated rivets)

anyone have $3,000,000 i can borrow?

for this????

(please)
(shout out to boing boing)

hill hunts?

well NOT on MY land
When Did the Ability to Kill Animals Become Prerequisite for the Presidency?
Posted by Richard Blair, The All Spin Zone
.............Over the weekend, Hillary Clinton was doing some campaigning in Kenosha, Wisconsin. At a Q&A session, a question was raised on what she would do to prevent tragedies such as occurred last week at Northern Illinois University, in which 5 students were killed and 22 more wounded by a former NIU student who had gone off his meds.
Her answer was troubling to me - not her stock political answer (background checks, no gun permits for terrorists or the mentally ill) - but that she felt the need to impress Wisconsin voters with her own killing credentials:
"You know, you may not believe it but I've actually gone hunting," Clinton, 60, said at a question-and-answer session with voters at a crammed bratwurst restaurant in Kenosha.
"My father taught me to shoot 100 years ago," she said jokingly...
Wait a second. Didn't Mitt Romney say basically the same thing earlier in his own campaign, in an attempt to boost his own machoness / killing cred with New Hampshire voters? Why, yes, yes he did...............

i LOVE LOVE LOVE his version of 'little red wagon'

and as it turns out, i love love love his views as well (at least on this)

Willie Nelson: Impeach Bush, "Throw The Bastards Out""If you break the law, you have to pay for it," American icon tells Alex Jones Show
Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet
American icon Willie Nelson says he supports efforts to impeach President Bush and "throw the bastards out," adding that the administration will do anything to stay in power, including staging an event to cancel the election.
In his second appearance this month, Nelson told The Alex Jones Show today that he supported Dennis Kucinich's attempt to impeach Bush, adding, "If you break the law you have to pay for it one way or another and if these guys haven't broke the law nobody has.".........
won't you ride in my little red wagon (sorry i can't find a video of it)

i'm an idiot and I'VE NEVER CONFUSED THE TWO

You say Obama, MSNBC says Osama: yet another media 'mix-up'

we knew this

the entire world knew this. they ignored it then, they will ignore it now. if you ask people on the street why we (illegally, immorally and unjustly) invaded iraq - a surprising number will tell you - BECAUSE THEY HAD WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION. time did NOT make that statement true. nor will it in the future

Britain Releases Iraq WMD Dossier Draft

By DAVID STRINGER The Associated Press
LONDON -- An early version of a British dossier of prewar intelligence on Iraq did not include a key claim about weapons of mass destruction that became vital to Tony Blair's case for war, the newly published document showed Monday.
The 2002 document insisted Saddam Hussein's regime had acquired uranium and had equipment necessary for chemical weapons, but does not contain a claim that Iraq could launch weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes _ an allegation crucial to Blair's push to back the 2003 U.S.-led invasion _ that later was discredited.
Campaigners allege that the 45-minute claim was inserted into later drafts of the document on the orders of Blair's press advisers, who were seeking to strengthen the case for invasion _ a claim the government has strongly denied.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who published the document Monday following a request filed under Freedom of Information laws, said the early draft _ produced by then-Foreign Office press office chief John Williams _ was not used as the basis for later documents, drafted by the Joint Intelligence Committee, or JIC. ......

i don't understand

why everything has to be separated into 'why women', 'why won't women', 'why black', 'why won't black' voters......................... do this or that? why is the msm doing this? of course i've posted about NOW going after everyone who doesn't vote for hillary simply based on the fact she's a woman (NOT A GOOD REASON IN MY BOOK. i've disowned NOW, not that i've ever owned them to begin with. i was never a big fan of theirs). why are they separating groups of people and PITTING them against each other?

Obama Wave Stuns Clinton's Black Supporters

By Kevin Merida Washington Post Staff Writer
You can see the confusion on some of their faces, hear the concern in their voices. How in the world do we deal with this?
Hillary Clinton's black supporters -- especially the most prominent ones -- hadn't expected their candidate to be in a dogfight right now. They thought Barack Obama was an election cycle or two away from being serious presidential timber. They thought Bill Clinton's presidency and the close relationships the Clintons had forged with African Americans would translate into goo-gobs of votes in '08. They were wrong.
Remember all the commentator chatter last summer: Is Barack Obama black enough?
Well, he's black enough now. .....

whoops!

a GIANT woops at that!

F.B.I. Gained Unauthorized Access to E-Mail

By ERIC LICHTBLAU



WASHINGTON — A technical glitch gave the F.B.I. access to the e-mail messages from an entire computer network — perhaps hundreds of accounts or more — instead of simply the lone e-mail address that was approved by a secret intelligence court as part of a national security investigation, according to an internal report of the 2006 episode. F.B.I. officials blamed an “apparent miscommunication” with the unnamed Internet provider, which mistakenly turned over all the e-mail from a small e-mail domain for which it served as host. The records were ultimately destroyed, officials said.
Bureau officials noticed a “surge” in the e-mail activity they were monitoring and realized that the provider had mistakenly set its filtering equipment to trap far more data than a judge had actually authorized.
The episode is an unusual example of what has become a regular if little-noticed occurrence, as American officials have expanded their technological tools: government officials, or the private companies they rely on for surveillance operations, sometimes foul up their instructions about what they can and cannot collect...........

is this report really

badly written or researched? ORRRRRRRRRRRR are there things in the report that are TRUE the administration wants to discredit? we all know what i believe
Delay Of Report Is Blamed On Politics
Document Suggests Public Health Risks Near Great Lakes

By Kari Lydersen Washington Post Staff Writer
CHICAGO -- The lead author and peer reviewers of a government report raising the possibility of public health threats from industrial contamination throughout the Great Lakes region are charging that the report is being suppressed because of the questions it raises. The author also alleges that he was demoted because of the report.
Chris De Rosa, former director of the division of toxicology and environmental medicine at the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), charges that the report he wrote was a significant factor in his reassignment to a non-supervisory "special assistant" position last year.
The House Committee on Science and Technology is investigating De Rosa's reassignment, in light of allegations that it was related to the Great Lakes report and his push to publicize the possibility of a cancer risk from formaldehyde fumes in Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers housing victims of Hurricane Katrina. ...........

snuggly bear

by mark fiore explains fisa to us

(hat tip to boing boing)

fallen art (i've posted this before)

but it's worth looking at again (i was reminded of it because i saw it today on bifurcated rivets



BUT i've never posted THE CATHEDRAL before:


The catedral - For more funny videos, click here

what was it jesus said (and did) to the moneylenders

(moneychangers)?
another hmmmmmmmmmmm
Study Says Payday Lenders More Prevalent In Areas Of High Christian Conservative Power

A law professor and associate professor of geography set out to create the most comprehensive map of U.S. payday lenders to date. What they found, to their surprise, was "a surprising relationship between populations of Christian conservatives and the proliferation of payday lenders." And it's not a side effect of a poor population that happens to be Christian, according to the authors: "Our research showed that the correlation between payday lenders and the political power of conservative Christians was stronger than the correlation between payday lenders and the proportion of a population living below the poverty line." ........

hmmmmmmmmmm

something stinks. 80 districts with NOT ONE VOTE FOR OBAMA? IN ONE DISTRICT IN HARLEM? IN NEW YORK? that is simply NOT POSSIBLE. NOT NOT NOT

Unofficial Tallies in City Understated Obama Vote
By SAM ROBERTS
Black voters are heavily represented in the 94th Election District in Harlem’s 70th Assembly District. Yet according to the unofficial results from the New York Democratic primary last week, not a single vote in the district was cast for Senator Barack Obama. That anomaly was not unique. In fact, a review by The New York Times of the unofficial results reported on primary night found about 80 election districts among the city’s 6,106 where Mr. Obama supposedly did not receive even one vote, including cases where he ran a respectable race in a nearby district.
City election officials this week said that their formal review of the results, which will not be completed for weeks, had confirmed some major discrepancies between the vote totals reported publicly — and unofficially — on primary night and the actual tally on hundreds of voting machines across the city.
In the Harlem district, for instance, where the primary night returns suggested a 141 to 0 sweep by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, the vote now stands at 261 to 136. In an even more heavily black district in Brooklyn — where the vote on primary night was recorded as 118 to 0 for Mrs. Clinton — she now barely leads, 118 to 116........

artist of the day

paddy casey
my favorite paddy song is ancient sorrow. here's a video. the video isn't by paddy (i don't think. it's his song and his voice but someone else made the video. a series of pictures. this is the only version of the song on video i could find.)




and here are a couple of other songs