i miss you joe

but you left me with TONS of things. one of which is:



and because i can hear it a kazillion times in a row

smoke

an AHA! moment

now it makes sense to me. i had read kbr BANNED CELLPHONES (for their 'deployed' employees). i sure didn't know why. they had some bullshite nonsense out there about safety. i can only wonder WHOSE safety

KBR Bans Cell Phones and Silences Rape Victims

Posted by: Cara

KBR, the defense contractor doing a lot of heavy lifting in the upholding of our occupation of Iraq, has banned the use of personal cell phones by its employees. KBR and its previous parent company Halliburton are notorious for many things. One of those things is the rape and cover up of rape committed by its male employees against its female employees.

How are the two related? Well, the first and most widely-known woman to come forward with an allegation of rape and cover up is Jamie Leigh Jones. Jones was gang raped by her coworkers, then locked inside of a shipping container for days in order to prevent her from reporting the attack. The Justice Department never brought charges against her assailants, and extremely important evidence in the case was “lost” by KBR. But the relevant part is how Jones escaped: through the use of a cell phone. A “sympathetic guard” loaned the phone to her, which she used to call her father in the United States. Her father subsequently called his congressperson, who ended up securing Jones’ release. If that “sympathetic guard” (you know, the one who didn’t set her free) hadn’t handed her that cell phone, god only knows where Jamie Leigh Jones would be today. But it just might not be alive, let alone acting as a major anti-rape and anti-KBR activist..........

a question

what would make you angrier, a politician who had an affair OR a politician who sent 4,136 of our men and women to their deaths for NO reason other than to line his pockets and the pockets of his good ol' white boy network with gold?

the 'apology' just brings up

way more questions and concerns for me. so you cannot even work for a large respected newspaper and write about terrorism WITHOUT BEING A SUSPECT yourself? i can only imagine if one worked for a SMALLER news outlet

FBI Apologizes to Post, Times

Phone Records Were Breached

By Carrie Johnson

Washington Post Staff Writer
FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III apologized to two newspaper editors yesterday for what he said was a recently uncovered breach of their reporters' phone records in the course of a national security investigation nearly four years ago. .....

...........

The Justice Department's inspector general, who is reviewing the bureau's procedures in such cases, uncovered lapses that allowed FBI agents in 2004 to obtain telephone records of Post staff writer Ellen Nakashima, who was based in Jakarta, Indonesia, at the time. The FBI also obtained telephone records of an Indonesian researcher in the paper's Jakarta bureau, Natasha Tampubolon.

Records of New York Times reporters Raymond Bonner and Jane Perlez, who worked in Jakarta in 2004, also were compromised, the Times confirmed yesterday.....

............At the time, the reporters were writing articles about Islamic terrorism in Southeast Asia.........

wow

each time a new ad pops up, two things happen.
1) everyone (conditionally i say everyone. i mean everyone with a brain) realizes just how afraid mccain really is
and
2) mccain's soul gets more eaten away. if he continues, there will be absolutely NOTHING left of it right quick

No Vacation From McCain's Attacks

GOP Campaign Launches Three Ads as Obama Heads for a Week in Hawaii

By Jonathan Weisman and Michael D. Shear

Washington Post Staff Writers

With Barack Obama stepping off the playing field for a week-long Hawaiian vacation, John McCain's campaign released three new attack ads yesterday, signaling that the senator from Arizona would use the void to continue pummeling the character of his rival for the White House.

Obama's trip to Hawaii, where he spent much of his youth, comes after a week in which his Republican opponent dominated the news with his negative assault. Obama aides said the senator from Illinois is maintaining his lead in polls and will not be goaded into responding with character attacks of his own.......

also found via makezine

how can you go wrong with radiohead AND LEGOS? answer = YOU CANNOT

house of cards
time lapse in legos

how cool is this?

unbelievably A W E S O M E
(via makezine)

oh my stars!

seems like all the little brat needed was a DOSE

shout out to boing boing

i wonder how hot it is

in these 'non torturous' boxes? king george really DOES have some swinging balls on his own self. he tells the chinese they are all effed up as far as human rights goes YET NOT ONLY DOES HE CONDONE TORTURE HE WELCOMES IT.

(i am NOT for coddling criminals mind you. i am NOT for torturing ANYONE though). remember WE invaded THEIR country (for NO reason). wouldn't YOU be pissed and perhaps a bit violent if someone invaded YOUR country?

U.S. segregates violent Iraqi prisoners in crates

From Barbara Starr
CNN Pentagon Correspondent
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. military is segregating violent Iraqi prisoners in wooden crates that in some cases are not much bigger than the prisoners.

The military released photos of what it calls "segregation boxes" used in Iraq.

Three grainy black-and-white photos show the rudimentary structures of wood and mesh. Some of the boxes are as small as 3 feet by 3 feet by 6 feet tall, according to military officials. There was no image released of a box that size.

The average Iraqi male is 5 feet 6 inches tall, according to the Iraqi Ministry of Health. That leaves little room for a prisoner to move once placed inside. See how a man might fit in the crate »

The photos were made public after a blogger filed a Freedom of Information Act request in 2005.

The military said the boxes are humane and are checked every 15 minutes. It said detainees, who stand inside the boxes, are isolated for no more than 12 hours at a time.

"Someone in a segregation box is actually observed more than those anywhere else," said Maj. Neal Fisher, a spokesman for Task Force 134, the Marine unit in charge of detainees. "Their care and custody does not change simply because they are in segregation." Watch why the boxes raise human rights concerns ».....

it's taj mahal thursday

(i be lovin' me my taj. back in the day, they used to play at the shaboo and i was there EACH AND EVERY TIME. alas, the shaboo burned down never to be replaced)

kettle, kettle, kettle!!!

this from a man who calls our constitution 'a piece of paper'. this from a man who spys on his own citizens. this from a man who sends his own citizens to their deaths (for reasons no one yet knows). this from a man who doesn't help his own citizens who were victims of natural disasters. this from a man who is tossing billions and billions and billions of OUR dollars away.

how dare HE is all i have to say

Bush chides Beijing over rights

US President George W Bush has expressed "deep concerns" over China's human rights record in a speech on the eve of the Beijing Olympics.

"The US believes the people of China deserve the fundamental liberty that is the natural right of all human beings," he said in the Thai capital Bangkok.

He praised China's economy but said only respect for human rights would let it realise its full potential.

Mr Bush has been criticised by some campaigners for going to the Games....

how could dr kay whitley

fail to show up at this hearing she was subpoenaed to? how can we allow king george and his court to continue not only to send our men to have their lives ruined (by sending them to iraq) but covering up the rape of our women in the military (by officers, fellow enlisted personnel AND by contractors hired by the military)? we allow this insane king to do whatever the hell he wants even though it costs us billions and billions of dollars and thousands of lives. it also costs us tens of thousands of minds. the minds of those who served and are suffering as well as their families. on top of that, there is instance after instance after instance of sexual assault in the military. you think they lied about pat tillman (well of course they did)? THIS IS WORSE.


Rape in the Military: Members of Congress Accuse Pentagon of Cover-Up
y Tala Dowlatshahi, American News Project.

The video below shows Congress taking on the Department of Defense in the first oversight hearing held this year by the subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs on sexual assault in the military. Dr. Kaye Whitley, Director of Sexual Assault and Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO) failed to show at the hearing despite being subpoenaed. Her "no show" left some members accusing the DOD of a cover-up.

this IS true of course

it's not gay people we have to worry about. it's the people who are AFRAID of gays. you know, the ones who shoot up children's church plays and the like. THOSE are terrorists.

right at the beginning of this illegal, immoral and unjust war, i read (or saw, i have forgotten) a story about a young man in the military. he was a translator. he spoke arabic. he was also gay. he was booted from the miliary. HOW INSANE IS THAT?

Olbermann: America fears gays more than terrorists
by PageOneQ
The government's more afraid of its own gays than international terrorists, said MSNBC's Keith Olbermann.

After firing over 300 gay translators under the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," which prevents gay and lesbian personnel from serving openly, the military is now preparing to offer retention bonuses of up to $150,000 to those who remain, as the Christian Science Monitor reported Tuesday. The policy that put the military in such a position, which Olbermann called "moronic," he notes, remains in place, as costs to replace the translators, in bonuses alone, could reach $45 million............

a site you should visit

i happened to come across this photo and i googled the name lorin bannerman

i found this too: stacy bannerman

photo: Oregon National Guardsman and Iraq war veteran Lorin Bannerman, left, offers a carrot to Larry, a former testing animal, with wife Stacy at his side in the Oregon Animal Sanctuary at Double Oak Farm in the Applegate Valley outside Ruch, Ore., May 10, 2008. The sanctuary is seeking to involve traumatized veterans in its programs. Bannerman suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. (AP Photo/Drew E. Fleming)

i do so love her

oh man, and HER too



and him too

Будет ласковый дождь

(shout out to dark roasted blend)

i read this yesterday and was saddened

not by the ignorance and arrogance of one stupid man but the fact there are most likely MORE of these kinds of people out there. they just don't have a national audience. a shout out to glenn beck (believe it or not) too.

how to speak i love it when a good ol' white boy tells ME (and the rest of the world) how to 'be black'. what does 'being black' sound like? do only SOME black people 'sound black' and others not? where does eminem figure into this equation? and more importantly, who is going to teach toby keithenglish? (i know i shouldn't have started a sentence with and, but i have trouble 'speaking white'. oh, I HAVE NO TROUBLE SPEAKING SHITE THOUGH. JUST LIKE TOBY KEITH)

i'd say i was NEVER going to purchase a toby keith cd ever again, but that would be rather useless as i've NEVER purchased (or listened to on purpose) a piece of toby keith's music.

Lynching Advocate Toby Keith: Obama Acts White To Win

posted by Max Blumenthal

Last week, I reported for the Huffington Post that country singer Toby Keith had performed a pro-lynching anthem on the Colbert Report, and would be playing the same song soon on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and a slew of nationally televised talk shows.

The lyrics of Keith's song, "Beer For My Horses," which I transcribed, could hardly be less explicit -- "Hang 'em high, for all the people to see." In my piece, I also noted the racially tinged nature of the song's video and the forthcoming movie that Keith's song inspired.......

...........

.........Now, Keith has trained his sights on Barack Obama, attacking him in racially tinged language that startled even the notoriously reactionary radio jock Glenn Beck. During Keith's appearance on the July 30 broadcast of Beck's show, he remarked, "I think the black people would say he [Obama] don't talk, act or carry himself as a black person."

"What does that even mean?" the audibly shocked Beck replied.

"Well, I don't know what that means," Keith drawled, "but I think that that's what they would say......................

sooooooooooooooo

where is THEIR money going and why is our money still needed? then again why are our lives still needed (as if they were EVER needed in this capacity anyway)? why why why? did we and are we continuing to let madmen run our country and OUR lives?

our country is falling apart. OUR PEOPLE need help. sure your king turns around and sends all of us between 300 and 600.00. that won't help us out of our shite holes

Iraq Banks Billions in Surpluses, GAO Says

Nation's Oil Revenue Rising Sharply While U.S. Funds Reconstruction Projects

By Karen DeYoung

Washington Post Staff Writer

Iraq's oil income will more than double this year, even as Baghdad continues to spend only a small percentage of its own money on reconstruction and services while it banks billions in surplus funds, according to projections by U.S. government auditors.

Between 2005 and 2007, only 10 percent of Iraq's expenditures went toward reconstruction, with just 1 percent spent on maintaining U.S. and Iraqi-funded investments in roads, water, electricity and weapons, according to a report released yesterday by the Government Accountability Office. Even when Baghdad has allocated larger sums, the report said, it has spent only a small portion of the budgeted money.

Those trends, which the report said have continued during the first half of this year, are likely to fuel further congressional discontent over ongoing U.S. payments to rebuild Iraq......

i did see the picture the other day

and it struck me because the 'dea' agent had a soul patch AND long hair. i know that's usually NOT how they roll. then i thought perhaps the dude is an undercover officer. hmmmmmmm then it was MIGHTY MIGHTY STUPID to be photographed and be on the front page of newspapers. THEN i saw the BLACKWATER tee and EVERYTHING fell into place. i'm not shocked and i'm not surprised. we have a 'hired hand' government. we ARE getting ready for a takeover by an insane dictator. and if you think it's JUST the dea hiring the mercenaries - you, my dears, ARE SADLY MISTAKEN
(and normally i wouldn't care about this - it's not news to me. i know these guns for hire are everywhere. working for the king and his buds. HOWEVER, when i found out they're trying to delete the picture. well then, that's when i got really interested)

Deleted photo sparks fears DEA hiring mercenaries
Muriel Kane
When a California medical marijuana dispensary, Organica Collective, was raided last Thursday by agents of the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency and local police, the Los Angeles Times ran a dramatic story on the incident, accompanied by a set of photographs showing the raid and its aftermath.

According to the Times, witnesses described the DEA agents as "removing computers, medicine and money, and using a steel cylinder battering ram to get into the upstairs bedrooms." When they left four hours later, all that remained was "trash, counters strewn with open and empty glass jars, piles of receipts thrown on the ground, upturned couch cushions, bits of marijuana on the edges of counters and an ATM with its doors torn open and emptied. ... An outdoor vegetable garden had plants uprooted, along with marijuana plants removed by the agents."

However, one particular photograph from the Times story has drawn more attention than anything else......

another ohhhhhhhhhhhh

from the wooster collective

the work of wim delvoye

oh my goddess

i LOVE this reporter (Juliet Eilperin from the Washington Post)
(via americablog)

John McCain stumbles on question about attack on Obama

from the gun guys

(and no, it's NOT that kind of site. as a matter of fact, you really should be checking it out all of the time. it's a great resource)

more (lots and lots more) info on the asswipe either known as mary mcfate or mary lou sapone

nra spy. traitor to the human race. liar. paid informant.

this isn't about kbr

UPDATE: (a couple of hours after i posted the story): kbr has looked at this posting at least once - although i suspect more than once. i could only identify their isp once though. at any rate, INSTEAD OF LOOKING AT BLOG POSTS ABOUT PFC LAVENA JOHNSON (they hit on the kbr i'm sure. i don't think they give a flying fuck about pfc lavena johnson). why don't you hire some private investigators to find out what really happened to pfc lavena johnson AND IF ONE OF YOUR EMPLOYEES WAS RESPONSIBLE for her murder. don't you want to know? if one of your employees WAS indeed responsible (i can't say what i really want to say here and we all know it) don't you want to make them accountable? don't you want to apologize to the united states of america? don't you want to do ANYTHING but protect your name and your contracts? don't any of you have beating hearts?

although it is THE first time i have read their name in connection to the death of lavena johnson. every story i've read (and i've read MOST of them out there) mention her body was either dragged from the tent of a "contractor" (now of course i KNEW who the contractor had to be, they were just always nameless) to her own tent or found in the tent of that contractor. the military claims pfc johnson shot herself, committed suicide. well i suppose it's possible after all, pigs do fly. pfc johnson's body had bite marks on it. it was bruised. her teeth were knocked out. her genitals were burned with what appears to be acid. the angle of the bullet wound is all wrong (for suicide that is) and then after she did all that to herself she set her tent on fire (or the contractors tent). yup, suicide all right.

the military still insists this was a suicide.

what this posting IS about is justice for heroes. specifically WOMEN (this time, but all heroes over all)

pfc johnson was raped and murdered. if i was the president of the united states of america i would DEMAND answers and now. he doesn't because he doesn't care. we should be screaming from our rooftops for justice. for pfc lavena johnson, for ALL. we should NOT accept lies from the d o d, from the military, from our king or from his good ol' white boy network. this is OUR country. why are we allowing this to happen?

the article below mentions the following women:
Army Spc. Suzanne Swift
Army Pfc. LaVena Johnson,
Army Pfc. Tina Priest
Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach
Red Cross employee Ingrid Torres

Sexual Assault in the Military: A DoD Cover-Up?

by: Col. Ann Wright, Truthdig
There was quite a struggle in Congress this week. The Department of Defense refused to allow the senior civilian in charge of its Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO) to testify in Thursday's hearing on sexual assault in the military. Rep. John Tierney, chair of the House Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs, angrily dismissed Principal Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Michael Dominguez from the hearing when Dominguez said that he, the DoD chief of legislative affairs and the chief of public affairs, had ordered Dr. Kaye Whitley, chief of SAPRO, to refuse to honor the subpoena issued by the subcommittee for her appearance. Full committee Chairman Henry Waxman called the DoD's decision to prevent Whitley from testifying "ridiculous and indicating DoD is covering something up." It could also place Whitley in contempt of Congress. Rep. Christopher Shays said the DoD's decision was "foolish." ..........

................Rep. Elijah Cummings joined Rep. Waxman in speaking of cover-ups. Cummings raised the cases of military women who had been sexually assaulted before dying in "non-combat incidents." He spoke specifically about Army Pfc. LaVena Johnson, who was found beaten and dead of a gunshot wound at Balad Air Base, Iraq, in a burning tent owned by the contractor KBR. Her parents suspected that Johnson had been murdered and that the homicide was being covered up by the Army, which deemed the death a suicide............

.............Of the 2,212 reported rapes in the military in 2007, only 8 percent of the cases ended in court-martial of the perpetrator, while the rate of prosecution in civilian courts is 40 percent..........

oh and the parents of pfc lavena johnson STILL aren't hearing the truth from the military

more GREAT signs

from dark roasted blend

huh?

Only black reported kicked out of McCain event for no reason

what could only make this more

absurd is to find out we lent iraq the money to buy this shite. are we living in the twilight zone? i sure don't think this is reality

Iraq arms sales request worth over nine billion dollars: Pentagon

The Pentagon said Friday it has notified Congress of proposed military sales to Iraq valued at more than nine billion dollars, including helicopters, tanks and armored vehicles.

The biggest proposed sale was for 392 Light Armored Vehicles, radios and anti-tank weapons at an estimated cost of three billion dollars, the Defense Security and Cooperation Agency said.

Congress also was notified of a possible sale of 140 upgraded M1A1 Abrams tanks as well as armored Humvees, tracked logistics vehicles, armored ambulances, vehicles to carry shelters and command posts, and trucks to transport heavy equipment.

It was valued at 2.16 billion dollars.

A separate 2.4 billion dollar helicopter deal would provide the Iraqi government with 24 Bell Armed 407 helicopters or 24 Boeing AH-6 helicopters, along with engines, missiles, mortars, machineguns, and rocket launchers.......

if this is true

i'm not the least bit surprised. disgusted, yes. repulsed, yes. sickened, yes. mortified, yes. there are devils in this world (i don't believe in hell, i believe evil exists and it is human). karadzic is the devil but i also believe in my heart and soul members of our government (not all) are the devil as well. how they all sleep at night is beyond me. i personally only sleep 2 to 3 hours a night.

Americans were responsible for Karadzic's well being
Radovan Karadzic and former US negotiator Richard Holbrooke had signed a deal at the end of 1995, Serbian media said, adding that it entered into effect in 1996.

The Karadzic-Holbrooke pact called for Karadzic to give up leadership of his political party and to drop out of political life in return for his already existing war crimes indictment being scrapped, local media said.

The exclusive document is made up of four chapters. In the first part of the deal, Karadzic undertook to quit political life.

The second part of the deal envisioned the obligations of the US government i.e. to provide security for then Bosnian Serb leader, to provide funds and accommodation. The then US administration also undertook not to meddle with the members of his party's presidency.

According to the deal, the then US government undertook to provide $600.000 in local currency for Karadzic. The government also granted Karadzic a residential facility at a location previously agreed. The government also tasked at least six bodyguards to take care of Karadzic's safety...............

Karadzic protected by US until he broke 'deal': Belgrade report
Agence France-Presse
BELGRADE, Aug 2, 2008 (AFP) - Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic was protected by the United States until a CIA phone bug caught him breaking the terms of his 'deal', Serb newspaper Blic reported Saturday, quoting a US intelligence source.

Partly echoing what Karadzic himself told the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in his opening written submission, the paper claims Karadzic was secretly granted immunity in return for keeping a low profile.

"Karadzic, indicted for genocide and war crimes, was under the US protection until 2000, when the CIA intercepted his telephone conversation that clearly proved he personally chaired a meeting of his old political party," the daily quoted a "well-informed US intelligence source" as saying...............