ewwwwwwwww

from dark roasted blend

nightmarish playground equipment

part i and

part ii

i actually think a LOT of these are pretty cool but NOT NOT NOT for the young 'uns

(shout out to boing boing)

saturday with willie

why is everyone up in arms about rev wright

and no one is saying ANYTHING about 'it'. 'it' goes on to say (allegedly joke) 'it' kills in klan related murders ON CASUAL FRIDAYS. 'it' gets invited on msm to talk. why? why isn't 'it' held in contempt? what makes 'it' an expert? why wouldn't msm ostracize 'it' after 'it' joked about killing (what can only assume to be people of color)? why isn't the print medium (including the net) calling for 'its' shunning?

since i am quoting from 'it', loath that i am to do it, i have to link to 'it'
it's website

He said we are a country that sent "over 4,000 American boys and girls of every race to die over a lie." And Wright said it is a country "where I can worship God on Sunday morning wearing a black clergy robe and kill others on Sunday evening wearing a white Klan robe." (Unless, like me, you do all your Klan-related murdering on "casual Fridays.")

Ann Coulter Jokes About Lynching, Still on CNN
Posted by Jeffrey Feldman, Huffington Post
As usual, Ann Coulter's newest round of violence-tinged pundit appearances included going on CNN to call millions of Americans "traitors" (treason is a crime punishable by the death penalty) and suggest that Sen. Barack Obama is a covert terrorist assassin.
What did Ann Coulter do this week to earn this right to appear on the most trusted name in news?
She published a weekly syndicated column laced with violent-rhetoric in which she suggested that an Obama Presidency would result in the destruction of the U.S. by terrorists and--she joked about lynching Africa-Americans.......

these are the sorts of people we get our 'news' from

dangerous, black-hearted, immoral, soul-less. people without a conscious. people who ignore the constitution, laws and the geneva convention. people who ignore REAL PROOF not only is waterboarding TORTURE, waterboarding doesn't work (torture doesn't work. victims WILL blurt out what they think YOU want to hear. look up 'does waterboarding work').

Pentagon-backed Fox analyst calls waterboarding a ‘very useful tool’

When Hillary Clinton appeared on The O’Reilly Factor, she stated that she does not support waterboarding because experienced interrogators tell her it doesn’t produce high-quality intelligence.
The hosts of Fox and Friends turned to “former CIA guy” and “terror analyst” Wayne Simmons to ask, “Is she telling the truth?”
“She’s clearly misinformed,” Simmons answered. “As most of the candidates are. In fact, even McCain is misinformed on this. … Waterboarding is not torture, it is a very, very, very useful tool to extract intel from our enemies. Has saved American lives and will continue to do so.”
When asked whether techniques like waterboarding elicit faulty information because “they’ll say anything to make you stop,” Simmons replied, “That’s the old myth. It’s the old myth about interrogation — and we’re not talking about torture because this is not torture.”
“The way you do it,” Simmons continued, “is you extract the intel, you vet the intel, and if it’s not true you come back and you see them and you make it very, very difficult on them.”
According to an online biography, “Simmons has been a Terrorism Analyst for the Fox News Channel since 2002. In 2004, under Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, he became a part of the Pentagon Outreach Program for Military and Intelligence Analysts. Simmons was one of the first outside Intelligence officers to visit GITMO (Guantanamo Bay, Cuba) in July, 2005 and again in July, 2006.”
The New York Times recently sparked a firestorm of outrage over the Pentagon Outreach Program when it exposed it as no more than a propaganda outlet for the military. According to the Times, “In the summer of 2005, the Bush administration confronted a fresh wave of criticism over Guantánamo Bay. … The administration’s communications experts responded swiftly. Early one Friday morning, they put a group of retired military officers on one of the jets normally used by Vice President Dick Cheney and flew them to Cuba for a carefully orchestrated tour of Guantánamo.”............

how much more proof do we need

king george is THE worst 'leader' we've EVER had?
For Bush in Last Year, It's the Principle
As Influence Wanes, He Stays Resolute

By Dan Eggen Washington Post Staff Writer
After U.S. gasoline prices surged to a record high this week, President Bush strode into the Rose Garden to unveil his plans for coping with skyrocketing energy costs: drill for oil in Alaska, add U.S. refineries and build more nuclear plants.
Even the White House conceded that the ideas did not have a chance. Democrats howled, Republicans shrugged and Washington moved on.
Ignoring the conventions of a lame-duck presidency, Bush is forging ahead with proposals that appear to have little chance of passage during his last nine months, relying on sharp rhetoric and strong-arm tactics in an attempt to influence the Democratic Congress. His plan for housing reform has languished since August, his push for a free trade pact with Colombia has been crushed, his climate-warming initiative has been largely ignored and he has yet to persuade the House to pass terrorist-surveillance legislation he deems vital to protecting the country. ..........

let's say you're an epa officer

let's say you were appointed by king george. BUT let's ALSO say you're honest, you're doing YOUR JOB, you're worried about the earth. you're worried about the toxic carcinogenic chemicals BIG BID-NEZ is shitting onto the earth. let's say you did the RIGHT THING by telling big-bid nez to knock it the hell off. to stop dumping chemicals, to clean up their act.

let's then say king george fires you

let's then ask the american public if we're going to stand for this (it appears we are)
Administration Reportedly Forces Out EPA Official

By Juliet Eilperin and Kari Lydersen Washington Post Staff Writers
A senior regional Environmental Protection Agency official who had feuded with Dow Chemical over a toxic cleanup site in Michigan resigned Thursday under pressure from the Bush administration, according to published reports.
Mary A. Gade, who headed the EPA's Midwest regional office in Chicago, had fought for months with Dow over plans to address dioxin-contaminated soil and sediment in Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron stemming from the chemical giant's Midland, Mich., plant. Dioxin, which at low levels of exposure has been found to cause cancer as well as immune and reproductive system problems, is a byproduct in the production of Agent Orange and other chemical products.
Gade -- who was appointed to her post in 2006 by President Bush -- told the Chicago Tribune on Thursday that two aides to EPA administrator Stephen L. Johnson stripped her of her power as regional administrator and informed her she could either quit or be fired by June 1. "There's no question this is about Dow," she told the Tribune. "I stand behind what I did and what my staff did. I'm proud of what we did."
Efforts to reach Gade to independently confirm the Tribune account were unsuccessful. .......

a giant WTF??????????/

is he INSANE?

Ben Stein: "science leads you to killing people"

Posted by Mark Frauenfelder,
Stefan Jones says: "In an interview on the Trinity Broadcasting System, Expelled star and game show host Ben Stein lets it all out."

Stein: When we just saw that man, I think it was Mr. Myers [biologist P.Z. Myers], talking about how great scientists were, I was thinking to myself the last time any of my relatives saw scientists telling them what to do they were telling them to go to the showers to get gassed … that was horrifying beyond words, and that’s where science — in my opinion, this is just an opinion — that’s where science leads you.

Crouch: That’s right.

Stein: …Love of God and compassion and empathy leads you to a very glorious place, and science leads you to killing people.

Crouch: Good word, good word.........

ask mccain a question

and be hauled off and questioned by the ss (and i don't mean the germans either)

that's now when he's JUST a candidate. can you imagine what would happen if he were our commander in chief?
Baptist minister nabbed by Secret Service and cops for asking McCain if it's true he called his wife a c-nt

by John Aravosis (DC) ·
No Baptists need apply. Oh, and three reporters say McCain did call his wife the c-word. I think that's a character issue conservative Christians, and a lot of Americans, might just care about. It hardly deserves being picked up by the cops and the Secret Service.

From IowaPolitics via Huff Post:

Clive businessman Marty Parrish was escorted from Sen. John McCain's town hall meeting by Des Moines police and members of the Secret Service after asking McCain if he had called his wife Cindy an expletive in 1992.

Parrish, an ordained Baptist minister who holds a master's degree in political science, was questioned by Secret Service agents before being released. He was not charged in the incident. Parrish asked whether McCain called his wife Cindy an expletive related to the female anatomy, as has been alleged in the book "The Real McCain," written by Dem strategist Cliff Schecter........

'they won't let anything negative be sold here'

hmmmmmmmm. but c'mon she really shouldn't have been surprised

Nell Scovell: If It Please the Court Gift Shop

Recently, on a just-spring day, I visited the Supreme Court, in Washington, D.C. Upstairs, Justice Antonin Scalia was insisting that a high murder rate was “all the more reason to allow a homeowner to have a handgun,” while downstairs I was examining the court’s self-supporting, elliptical marble staircase.

Since mounting the court’s front steps, I’d been thinking about Jeffrey Toobin’s book The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court. I’d devoured the book when it came out, in September 2007, admiring the CNN analyst’s first-rate reporting and his ability to write entertainingly about the arcane............

.................

I approached the cashiers. Two of them were working side-by-side, and we had the following conversation:

Me: Excuse me. Do you have the book The Nine?
Cashier #1: No.
Me: It’s a recent book about the Supreme Court on the New York Times best-seller list.
Cashier #1: I know. We don’t carry it.
Me: Why not?
Cashier #2: (jumping in) Everything we sell in the store has to go through a committee and maybe they haven’t gotten to it yet—
Cashier #1: (cutting her off) It’s not a completely positive book about the Supreme Court.
Me: Wow. That sounds like you only sell propaganda.
Cashier #1: They won’t let anything negative be sold here............

this needs no comment

U.S. has Mandela on terrorist list

this is VERRRRRRRRRRRRYYYYYYY interesting

no one is smelling this stink? hmmmmmm
Break-ins plague targets of US Attorneys
Larisa Alexandrovna, Muriel Kane and Lindsay Beyerstein
The Permanent Republican Majority Part VI
MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA – In two states where US attorneys are already under fire for serious allegations of political prosecutions, seven people associated with three federal cases have experienced 10 suspicious incidents including break-ins and arson
These crimes raise serious questions about possible use of deliberate intimidation tactics not only because of who the victims are and the already wide criticism of the prosecutions to begin with, but also because of the suspicious nature of each incident individually as well as the pattern collectively. Typically burglars do not break-into an office or private residence only to rummage through documents, for example, as is the case with most of the burglaries in these two federal cases.
In Alabama, for instance, the home of former Democratic Governor Don Siegelman was burglarized twice during the period of his first indictment. Nothing of value was taken, however, and according to the Siegelman family, the only items of interest to the burglars were the files in Siegelman's home office.
Siegelman's attorney experienced the same type of break-in at her office.
In neighboring Mississippi, a case brought against a trial lawyer and three judges raises even more disturbing questions. Of the four individuals in the same case, three of the US Attorney’s targets were the victims of crimes during their indictment or trial. This case, like that of Governor Siegelman, has been widely criticized as a politically motivated prosecution by a Bush US Attorney.
The main target of the indictment, attorney Paul Minor, had his office broken into, while Mississippi Supreme Court Justice, Oliver E. Diaz Jr., had his home burglarized. According to police reports and statements from Diaz and from individuals close to Minor, nothing of value was taken and the burglars only rummaged through documents and in Minor’s case, also took a single computer from an office full of expensive office equipment. ...........

the answer to the question alex is; YES

(the question being are black id-jit preachers treated differently than white id-jit preachers)

Fair Play for False Prophets
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
NEW YORK -- Do white right-wing preachers have it easier than black left-wing preachers? Is there a double standard?
The political explosion around the Rev. Jeremiah Wright was inevitable, given Wright's personal closeness to Barack Obama and the outrageous rubbish the pastor has offered about AIDS, Sept. 11 and Louis Farrakhan.
After Wright's bizarre and narcissistic performance at the National Press Club on Monday, Obama would have looked weak and irresolute had he not denounced him. But if there was a moment of courage in this drama, it was not Obama's condemnation of Wright but his earlier and now much-criticized effort to avoid a complete break with his unapologetic pastor. .........

you've probably already heard about this

Candidate speaks at Hitler birthday party

A congressional candidate is defending his speech to a group celebrating the anniversary of Adolf Hitler's birth, saying he appeared simply because he was asked.Tony Zirkle, who is seeking the Republican nomination in Indiana's 2nd District, stood in front of a painting of Hitler, next to people wearing swastika armbands and with a swastika flag in the background for the speech to the American National Socialist Workers Party in Chicago on Sunday."I'll speak before any group that invites me," Zirkle said Monday. "I've spoken on an African-American radio station in Atlanta."

(please note he is equating nazis with african americans. please also note HE IS A REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE)

now here's the PICTURE (cute, no?)

how much can they take?

a woman jailed for being raped. her prosecuter saying she got off easy, if HIS wife went out without his permission, HE'D KILL HER.

we MUST work to stop this
Blaming the victim: Abused Afghan women often end up in jail
Raped and then jailed: despite advances for Afghan women, old habits compound their misery
ALISA TANGAP News
.....................In parts of Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan, where stern social codes prevail, a woman who runs away from home is typically suspected of having taken a lover and can be prosecuted for adultery. Simply leaving her house without her family's permission may be deemed an offense — as in Rukhma's case — although it is not classified as such under Afghanistan's penal code.
The chief prosecutor of eastern Nangarhar province who oversaw Rukhma's case suggested she got off lightly.
"If my wife goes to the bazaar without my permission, I will kill her. This is our culture," Abdul Qayum shouted scornfully during an interview in his office in the city of Jalalabad.
His colleagues laughed approvingly. "This is Afghanistan, not America," Qayum said...........

i love when the media

(granted it isn't msm) makes 'em sweat, demands accountability AND honesty (well i can dream can't i????????)
White House Blacklist Breakthrough: Online media team up for free press victory
Eric Brewer
I thought it was shameful that 10 days after David Barstow's NY Times article about how the establishment media colluded with the Pentagon to sell the war in Iraq and the "war on terror" to the American people by hiring the Pentagon's "message force multipliers" as military analysts, no one had asked the White House about it.
I'd been trying, but I'd been on Dana Perino's 'blacklist' during my last six visits to the briefing room.
Today she again ignored me (I was sitting in the front row) until the very end of the briefing, when she was forced to call on me thanks to the intervention of Les Kinsolving of WorldNetDaily. Les had noticed at previous briefings that I was being singled out, and he thought it wasn't fair. Today he put Dana on the spot.
A video of this exchange is now available here.
Les Kinsolving: How about this gentleman's question? He's had his hand up all this time.Ms. Perino: Yes. I'm well aware. I'm sure it will be a great question. Go ahead.Me: The NY Times has reported that over the last...Ms. Perino: It's definitely going to be a good question.Me: ...over the last 6 years, the Pentagon conducted a secret operation designed to sell the war in Iraq and the 'war on terror' to the American people. It recruited more than 75 ex-military officers, many with financial ties to the defense industry, provided them with talking points and an extraordinary degree of access not available to ordinary members of the press, including meetings with the Secretary of Defense, and got them hired as supposedly independent military analysts by every U.S. television network. One of its participants described the program...Ms. Perino: Do you have a question?Me: One of its participants described the program as "Psyops on Steroids," and others said...Ms. Perino: Is this your opinion?Me: I'm describing the program.Ms. Perino: What's your question?Me: Others said that if they departed from the Pentagon's talking points, their access was cut off, and my question is: Did the White House know about and approve of this operation?..................

women:

you can't live with 'em, you can't (obviously) live without 'em (if you can't tell that's sarcasm, just click that little "X" in the upper right hand corner of your screen right now





women can and should do what men can (and should) do - in the armed services that is. here is a stunning example of the bravery of an 18 YEAR OLD WOMAN
they ended up pulling pfc brown out of afghanistan JUST BECAUSE SHE DOESN'T HAVE A PENIS. well i'm glad she's out, but i think if women want to join combat regiments they sure as hell should be allowed to do so.


Woman Gains Silver Star -- And Removal From Combat
Case Shows Contradictions of Army Rules



By Ann Scott Tyson Washington Post Staff Writer


KHOST, Afghanistan -- Pfc. Monica Brown cracked open the door of her Humvee outside a remote village in eastern Afghanistan to the pop of bullets shot by Taliban fighters. But instead of taking cover, the 18-year-old medic grabbed her bag and ran through gunfire toward fellow soldiers in a crippled and burning vehicle. .........





,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, She is the second woman since World War II to receive the nation's third-highest combat medal.
Within a few days of her heroic acts, however, the Army pulled Brown out of the remote camp in Paktika province where she was serving with a cavalry unit -- because, her platoon commander said, Army restrictions on women in combat barred her from such missions.
"We weren't supposed to take her out" on missions "but we had to because there was no other medic," said Lt. Martin Robbins, a platoon leader with Charlie Troop, 4th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, whose men Brown saved. "By regulations you're not supposed to," he said, but Brown "was one of the guys, mixing it up, clearing rooms, doing everything that anybody else was doing." ...............





Army Spec. Monica Brown's case shows that the need for women in combat roles is at odds with Army rules intended to bar them. Photo Credit: Photo: Ann Scott Tyson/Post Photo

the nutmeg grater: it's not even

the nutmeg grater: it's not even

it's not quite

sending 4,039 men and women to their deaths FOR NO REASON

but it's bad enough
Judge Orders Bush Administration to Stop Delaying Polar Bear Protection
Finds It Guilty of Violating Endangered Species Act

another example of us

bringing democracy to iraq. honor killings are rising. f**k ANYONE who condones this. if it's individuals or countries or religions or cultures, or whateverthefuck it is. killed because you had an UNKNOWN NUMBER IN YOUR CELL PHONE? what sort of person believes that killing someone over that protects their own honor?
"Women Are Being Beheaded for Taking Their Veil Off": Honor Killings On Rise in Iraq
By Terri Judd, Independent UK.
At first glance Shawbo Ali Rauf appears to be slumbering on the grass, her pale brown curls framing her face, her summer skirt spread about her. But the awkward position of her limbs and the splattered blood reveal the true horror of the scene.
The 19-year-old Iraqi was, according to her father, murdered by her own in-laws, who took her to a picnic area in Dokan and shot her seven times. Her crime was to have an unknown number on her mobile phone. Her "honor killing" is just one in a grotesque series emerging from Iraq, where activists speak of a "genocide" against women in the name of religion.
In the latest such case, it was reported yesterday that a 17-year-old girl, Rand Abdel-Qader, was stabbed to death last month by her father for becoming infatuated with a British soldier serving in southern Iraq.
In Basra alone, police acknowledge that 15 women a month are murdered for breaching Islamic dress codes. Campaigners insist it is a conservative figure...........

In August last year, the body of 11-year-old Sara Jaffar Nimat was found in Khanaqin, Kurdistan, after she had been stoned and burnt to death.

stop honor killings

speaking of GIANT dicks

who the hell do these people think they are? who the f**k are they to refer to a solider IN F**KING IRAQ as a TWO BIT SECURITY GUARD? they all have to go. every single asshole republican (there are about a handful that can stay. that have brains AND a soul) and every single democrat that allows the lying, stealing, murder, torture, the ruling of our country by criminals who ignore our laws etc to continue. out out out.

Rep. McHenry calls U.S. soldier in Iraq a ‘two-bit security guard.’»
During a public appearance on Saturday, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) belittled a U.S. soldier in Iraq who was following orders and wouldn’t let McHenry go to the gym without the proper credentials. McHenry referred to the guard as a “two-bit security guard“:
We spent the night in the Green Zone, in the poolhouse of one of Saddam’s palaces. A little weird, I got to be honest with you. But I felt safe. And so in the morning, I got up early — not that I make this a great habit — but I went to the gym because I just couldn’t sleep and everything else. Well, sure enough, the guard wouldn’t let me in. Said I didn’t have the correct credentials.
It’s 5:00 in the morning. I haven’t had sleep. I was not very happy with this two-bit security guard. So you know, I said, “I want to see your supervisor.” Thirty minutes later, the supervisor wasn’t happy with me, they escort me back to my room. It happens. I guess I didn’t need to work out anyway........

i still don't know who

the hell these 21% are. it's MIND BOGGLING

Bush hits all-time low on handling of the economy.»
In a NBC/WSJ poll to be released tomorrow, “only 21% approve of President Bush’s job in handling the economy — his lowest number ever as president on that question.” Additionally, the poll found that 81% of Americans “believe the US is currently in a recession.”

a GOD among men

well HE thinks he is. a citizen above suspicion.
Cheney lawyer claims Congress lacks power to conduct oversight over vice president
John Byrne
'I trust you will not turn your back' on respecting Congress, Democrat says
In what appears yet another effort to strengthen his position in the executive branch, the attorney for Vice President Dick Cheney said in a letter released by Congress Thursday that the Congress "lacks the constitutional power" to conduct oversight over his job.
The letter came in response to requests that Cheney's chief of staff David Addington testify about the his role in approving harsh interrogation tactics -- which some see as torture -- at Guantanamo Bay.
Cheney has long battled Congress over oversight. In particular, Congress has sought, and failed, to acquire information from his office regarding his meetings with oil company executives to discuss energy policy in 2001. Cheney was also the subject of a Washington Post series which detailed his attempts to strengthen the position of the vice presidency as a bulwark against inquiry..............

#links

#links

i was just in the mood

for a lil' jungle love............

i really am getting sick

of writing about this shite. now if the REST of the american people would join me, we'd be all set (and we'd demand a halt). i'm one voice, some of my blogging friends are other voices. we still need MORE

DynaCorp Manager Used Armored Car To Transport Hookers In Iraq
Some explosive testimony this afternoon from a panel of whistleblowers testifying before a Senate committee on contractor abuse in Iraq.
A contractor died when a DynCorp manager used an employee’s armored car to transport prostitutes, according to Barry Halley, a Worldwide Network Services employee working under a DynCorp subcontract.
“DynCorp’s site manager was involved in bringing prostitutes into hotels operated by DynCorp. A co-worker unrelated to the ring was killed when he was travelling in an unsecure car and shot performing a high-risk mission. I believe that my co-worker could have survived if he had been riding in an armored car. At the time, the armored car that he would otherwise have been riding in was being used by the contractor’s manager to transport prostitutes from Kuwait to Baghdad.“.............

yet another telling episode

that will be ignored by the powers that be AND the american public. i guess they don't realize we have a system of justice in this country. i KNOW they would be outraged (and are outraged) if and when OUR citizens are treated exactly like we are treating some. the democrats in congress and the senate are sitting on their big fat asses. sure, they'll form some committee or another, sure they'll moan and gripe. BUT THEY WON'T DO AN EFFING THING. this has to not only be recognized for what it is (treason, crimes against humanity, crimes against the united states of america) BUT THOSE RESPONSIBLE BE MADE ACCOUNTABLE
From Chief Prosecutor To Critic at Guantanamo

By Josh WhiteWashington Post Staff Writer
GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, April 28 -- The Defense Department's former chief prosecutor for terrorism cases appeared Monday at the controversial U.S. detention facility here to argue on behalf of a terrorism suspect that the military justice system has been corrupted by politics and inappropriate influence from senior Pentagon officials.
Sitting just feet from the courtroom table where he had once planned to make cases against military detainees, Air Force Col. Morris Davis instead took the witness stand to declare under oath that he felt undue pressure to hurry cases along so that the Bush administration could claim before political elections that the system was working.
His testimony in a small, windowless room -- as a witness for Salim Ahmed Hamdan, an alleged driver for Osama bin Laden -- offered a harsh insider's critique of how senior political officials have allegedly influenced the system created to try suspected terrorists outside existing military and civilian courts.
Davis's claims, which the Pentagon has previously denied, were aired here as the Supreme Court nears a decision on whether the Military Commissions Act of 2006 that laid the legal foundation for these hearings violates the Constitution by barring any of the approximately 275 remaining Guantanamo Bay prisoners from forcing a civilian judicial review of their detention. .........

a little primer

on latin american friends and foes
(p.s. you can tell who the friends are not by their morality or good deeds or care for their countries but by their right leanings. doesn't matter if they are evil, vile, drug dealing, killing and torturing dictators AS LONG AS THEY ARE RIGHT-WING)
It's U.S. Supported Columbia's Uribe Who Sounds like the Latin American Dictator
Posted by Joshua Holland
If you read the Washington Post as religiously as I do, you probably have a pretty good grasp of the taxonomy of Latin American leaders.
Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is a brutal dictator whose crimes include saying mean things about George W. Bush, sponsoring leftist terror groups, using Venezuela's oil revenues to sway elections in the region and, perhaps most egregious of all, banning the Simpsons! Oh, and winning a bunch of elections.
He's followed by evo Morales, who is a walking, talking race card and just won't let bygones be bygones when it comes to Bolivia's traditional elites -- those friendly light-skinned plutocrats who own all the land. He's a dictator too.
Then there are "moderates" like Chile's Michelle Bachelet. She might call herself a socialist, but Chile's into "free trade" and has a privatized Social Security system from the Pinochet era, so, meh.
Colombia's Alvaro Uribe, of course, is a close Washington ally, a recipient of massive amounts of U.S. security assistance and is widely regarded as a beacon of democracy. Yes, he's a former narco-terrorist who was a close personal friend of Pablo Escobar, and, yes, labor leaders and protest organizers are routinely assassinated in Colombia. And, sure, Uribe's cousin and close confidant was arrested last week for his ties to right-wing terrorist groups -- joining "More than 30 current or former members of Congress, the vast majority allies of the president, [who] have been arrested for allegedly backing and benefiting from the illegal right-wing bands" -- and, OK, now there are allegations that Uribe himself might have had a hand in the assassinations of 15 lefties in the 1990s...........

shecky bush

and lest we forget

there's that pesky war still going on. in the safe and sound green zone things appear to be rocking rocketing that is

A Storm of Sand and Shelling
Heavy Fire Aimed at Green Zone as Ground Forces Continue Push Into Sadr City

By Sholnn Freeman
Washington Post Foreign Service
BAGHDAD, April 27 -- Shelling rocked the Green Zone as a sandstorm blanketed Baghdad on Sunday, days after U.S. commanders said they had nearly eliminated deadly rocket and mortar attacks on the heavily fortified government zone through a security crackdown in the eastern slum of Sadr City.
Clashes continued over the weekend in Sadr City, where U.S. and Iraqi forces have confronted fighters tied to the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia loyal to anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. The U.S. military said drones fired Hellfire missiles, killing at least three men believed to be engaging in bomb attacks.
Abu Ammar al-Mayahi, a Mahdi Army fighter, said that U.S. and Iraqi forces continued to press into Sadr City on Sunday but that the dust storm curtailed U.S. use of air power. ..........

starving

A Ugandan boy suffering from malnutrition is measured at a hospital in the Matany village of Moroto in Karamoja, one of the driest and least developed areas in Uganda. The World Food Program fears the crisis will plunge more than 100 million of the world's poorest people deeper into poverty, forced to spend more and more of their income on sky-rocketing food bills.
Walter Estrada - AFP/Getty Images

after all, it is all about HIS honor

right?

yes, we're winning the war on terror. yes, we're bringing our form of democracy to the middle east. yes, mission accomplished

Her crime was to fall in love. She paid with her life
Afif Sarhan in Basra, Mark Townsend and Caroline Davies
When 17-year old Rand Abdel-Qader met a British soldier in Basra, she dreamt of romance. But five months later she was murdered in a savage attack by her father. But there will be no trial: this was an 'honour killing'. Investigation by Afif Sarhan in Basra, Mark Townsend and Caroline Davies
Rand Abdel-Qader, 17, told her closest friend that she was in love from the moment she set eyes on the young British soldier working alongside her in Basra, and she dreamed of a future with him.
It was an innocent infatuation but five months after Rand, a student of English at Basra University, met Paul, a 22-year-old soldier posted to southern Iraq, she was dead. She was stamped on, suffocated and stabbed by her father. Several brutal knife wounds punctured her slender, bruised body - from her face to her feet. He had done it, he proclaimed to the neighbours who soon gathered round, to 'cleanse his honour'.
And as Rand was put into the ground, without ceremony, her uncles spat on her covered corpse because she had brought shame on the family. Her crime was the worst they could possibly imagine - she had fallen in love with a British soldier and dared to talk to him in public. .............

stop honor killings

john mccain and compassion (and i'll toss morality in there as well)

go hand in glove like king george and honesty
McCain’s Compassion Tour
By GAIL COLLINS
John McCain — this is the guy, you may remember, who’s going to be the Republican presidential nominee — has been visiting the poor lately. Appalachia, New Orleans, Rust Belt factory towns. This is a good thing, and we applaud his efforts to show compassion and interest in people for whom his actual policies are of no use whatsoever. McCain’s special It’s Time for Action Tour was in the impoverished Kentucky town of Inez on Wednesday, so he was unable to make it to Washington to vote on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. This is the bill that would restore workers’ ability to go to court in cases of pay discrimination.
But McCain was not ducking the issue. After all, this is a man who told the folks in Youngstown, Ohio — where most of the working single mothers cannot make it above the poverty line — that the answer to their problems is larger tax deductions. He is fearless when it comes to delivering unpleasant news to people who are probably not going to vote for him anyway...............

how effed up is this?

people? what about torturing? what about not assisting those taking playboy and penthouse away from military men and women will "right a bureaucratic--and moral--wrong." A MORAL WRONG? what about invading a country who never attacked us, never was going to attack us? what about turning over 1,000,000 people into refugees? what about lying to the american public to the DETRIMENT of the americanamericans who were harmed by natural disasters? what about not caring about millions of americans who go to bed hungry each night? oh it goes on forever.

i am NOT a fan of playboy and penthouse. they more than demean women. they portray beauty (and sensuality and sex and attractiveness) as being only ONE way. i don't mind 'pornography' at all. i mind HOW women and WHAT women are portrayed in the playboys and the penthouses of the world.

IF our military men and women want access to those types of magazines, IT'S THEIR RIGHT to have them. they are allowed to torture and kill and maim but they're not allowed to get a stiffy?
bullshite on that
(and oh, this headline is certainly worthy of the ny post, isn't it? but it ain't the post)
Legislation aims to jack soldiers' 'off time' reading materials

Nick Langewis
"Pro-family" organizations and members of Congress are continuing the push to limit the range of reading materials available to members of the military.

House Rep. Paul Broun (GA-10), with 15 co-sponsors and the support of organizations such as the Alliance Defense Fund and the American Family Association, recently introduced a bill that would strengthen the ban on sales of adult-themed publications on U.S. military installations.

While the National Defense Authorization Act of 1997 bans the sale of "sexually explicit material" on property under Department of Defense jurisdiction, the Pentagon doesn't consider certain items explicit enough to take off of base store shelves; a certain percentage of a film or magazine's content would have to be considered "sexually explicit" for sale or rental to be barred.,............

THE three MOST absurd words in the entire universe are:

"Bush administration's interpretation "

ha

ha

ha

Administration Says Particulars May Trump Geneva Protections

By Joby Warrick

Washington Post Staff Writer

The Geneva Conventions' ban on "outrages against personal dignity" does not automatically apply to terrorism suspects in the custody of U.S. intelligence agencies, the Justice Department has suggested to Congress in recent letters that lay out the Bush administration's interpretation of the international treaty.

Lawyers for the department, offering insight into the legal basis for the CIA's controversial interrogation program, reasserted in the letters the Bush administration's long-held view that it has considerable leeway in deciding how the conventions' rules apply to the harsh questioning of combatants in the war on terrorism.

While the United States is legally bound by the conventions' Common Article 3 and its requirement to treat detainees humanely, the definition of humane treatment can vary, depending on the detainee's identity and the importance of the information he possesses, a Justice Department official wrote last September and this March to a Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee..........