fiona chutney goes to burning man

i heard this on npr this morning. i was laughing so hard i almost wet my pants.




fiona is the alter ego of iris bahr
picture:

Fiona poses with a victim of heavy vibes.

Iris Bahr

i don't know who did this poster

i got it via Mark Frauenfelder, boing boing

it's on the mark, no? it's on the mark YES

hey you giant steamin' piles of asswipes

you cannot have it both ways

you can't say hillary clinton whined about unfair treatment because she was a woman. you said well foreign leaders weren't going to cut her any slack. they wouldn't care what gender she was - if she was president of the united states, she'd have to suck it up and BE president of the united states


why then, when an interviewer asks sarevil legit questions do you cry "caution vagina vagina vagina"? if she has foreign experience because russia is in the same hood that alaska is in, do you think putin is going to care if one of the leaders of the united states has a vagina or not? fuck no! he's going to care if that leader has a brain in their head

Fox host sees sexism in ABC interview with Palin
David Edwards and Nick Juliano
How dare that mean Charlie Gibson over at ABC ask Sarah Palin all those mean misogynistic questions about whether the woman who would be a hearbeat from the presidency has ever traveled beyond North America, or knows what the Bush doctrine is, or would start a war with Russia, or would let Israel nuke Iran.

It's just sexist to think that experience with -- or even a solid grasp of -- world affairs should matter, say the morning bobble heads on Fox & Friends.

"It's very subtle, but I think you're not going to give the same questions to Barack Obama or any other man, for that matter, on the experience level," said F&F co-host Gretchen Carlson. "I think inherent in the questions is a little bit of sexism."....

i posted the original story on september 1st

now there are many more details. not that many MORE details are needed. the fact three teenaged girls were buried alive by the village men and the act later DEFENDED by the village men is detail enough to make one's skin tighten. what else did we find out?

well we found out a taxi driver who drove the girls to another town (so they could meet their boyfriends/intendeds) told the village men where the girls went and what they planned to do. we found out two adult women who were related to the girls were shot to death while they begged for mercy for the girls. we found out the reporter who broke this story was threatened by the village men. we found out the village government was part of the mob of men who murdered the three girls and two adult women

oh WHY did the village men kill the girls? because the girls decided to chose their OWN husbands instead of the ones their fathers had chosen FOR them!


HONOR KILLINGS PERSIST IN 'MAN'S WORLD'

By NBC News’ Shahid Qazi and Carol Grisanti

BABAKOT, Pakistan – In a tangle of bushes and trees outside a remote village in southwest Pakistan, six close male relatives of three teenage girls dug a 4-foot wide by 6-foot deep ditch, on a sweltering night in mid-July, and allegedly buried the girls alive.

The girls' crime: they dared to defy the will of their fathers and the customs of their tribe and choose their own husbands. The mother of one of the girls and the aunt of another were shot and killed while begging for the girls’ lives, according to local media reports........

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

The girls were dragged into vehicles and taken to the end of a back road in Babakot accompanied by two female relatives, according to media reports. The men dug ditches and ordered the girls to be thrown in. When the female relatives saw the ditches, they tried to intervene and begged for the girls’ lives, according to local media reports.

There was "pandemonium at the site," according to the findings of the Asian Human Rights Commission, and a tribal elder gave orders to shoot the two older women. They died immediately and were thrown into the wide ditch. The three girls, who were wounded in the gunfire but still alive, were then thrown in and covered with sand and mud.

In Pakistan’s rural areas, male tribal councils decide the fate of women who bring dishonor to their family. In 2004, President Pervez Musharraf outlawed the practice, known as "honor killings" – violations of the law carry the death penalty. But the law is impossible to enforce because this centuries old custom for dealing with women is protected by powerful feudal landlords and tribal elders.

Mastoi, the local reporter, told NBC News that "powerful people" from the Umrani tribe had threatened him and warned him of consequences if he continued to report the story. He said that everyone in the village knew what happened and shortly after the murders, a couple of shepherds in the area had taken him to see the actual burial site. "Now everyone is too afraid to talk," he said.........

the.......reformed....... pirate: an amazing documentary

the.......reformed....... pirate: an amazing documentary

dance

(via boing boing)

simply wonderful

and right on the mark

Lipstick on a Wing Nut

Subject to Debate

By Katha Pollitt

John McCain chose the supremely under-qualified Sarah Palin as his running mate partly because she is a woman. If you have a problem with that, you're a sexist. She talks incessantly about being a mother of five and uses her newborn, Trig, who has Down syndrome, as a campaign prop. If you wonder how she'll handle all those kids and the Veep job too, you're a super-sexist. "When do they ever ask a man that question?" charges that fiery feminist Rudy Giuliani. Indeed, Palin, who went back to work when Trig was three days old, gets nothing but praise from Phyllis Schlafly, James Dobson and the folks at National Review, who usually blame all the ills of modern America on those neurotic, harried, selfish, frustrated, child-neglecting, husband-castrating working mothers. Even stranger, her five-months-pregnant 17-year-old, Bristol, gets nothing but compassion and respect from Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh and others who have spent their careers slut-shaming teens for having sex--and blaming their parents for letting it happen. ...........

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

Count me as a feminist who never believed that being PTA president meant you could be, well, President. The more time we spend on dippy ruminations--how does she do it? Queen Bee on steroids or the hockey mom next door? how hot is Todd, anyway?--the less focus there will be on the kind of queries that should come first with any vice presidential candidate, and certainly would if Palin were a man. Questions like:

§ Suppose your 14-year-old daughter Willow is brutally raped in her bedroom by an intruder. She becomes pregnant and wants an abortion. Could you tell the parents of America why you think your child and their children should be forced by law to have their rapists' babies?

§ You say you don't believe global warming is man-made. Could you tell us what scientists you've spoken with or read who have led you to that conclusion? What do you think the 2,500 scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are getting wrong?

§ If you didn't try to fire Wasilla librarian Mary Ellen Baker over her refusal to consider censoring books, why did you try to fire her?

§ What is the European Union, and how does it function?...................

at about 5:42 on the video timer

john mccain really really really DOES NOT ANSWER the interviewer's question.

the interviewer keeps asking "what experience does sarah palin have in the field of national security"

mccain FUCKING ANSWERS 'ENERGY'

energy? WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

and john, just cause russia is next door to alaska, well that doesn't mean sarevil KNOWS who the last czar was


here's a link to the video interview. for some reason or another, the embed isn't taking

please go see it. you'll enjoy the dance

the looooooooooovvvvvvvvvvve boat

so exciting and new....................

Photo catches McCain celebrating birthday with indicted con man
David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Although John McCain has made condemning the influence of lobbyists in Washington one of his signature issues, his own campaign is largely run by high-powered lobbyists, including his campaign manager, Rick Davis. The connection with Davis appears to be behind McCain's having spent his 70th birthday partying on the yacht of Italian conman Raffaello Follieri -- who hired Davis's business partner to lobby for him just a few months later -- along with Follieri's then-girlfriend, actress Anne Hathaway. The date was Aug. 29, 2006 and the place was Montenegro, where McCain had traveled with a delegation of US senators to celebrate that nation's independence.
...................

The McCain-Follieri Love Boat

The Maverick and the Celebrity Con Man

By Mark Ames & Ari Berman

John McCain has been hammering rival Barack Obama for being little more than a vapid "celebrity" and "elitist." But The Nation has obtained a photo revealing just how star-struck a straight-talking maverick can become when offered the chance to celebrate his birthday aboard a yacht filled with celebrities--even if one of those celebrity types turns out to be an A-list con man. The photograph substantiates reports that in late August, 2006, McCain celebrated his 70th birthday aboard a yacht, the Celine Ashley, rented by A-list con man Raffaello Follieri and his then-movie star girlfriend Anne Hathaway. In the current edition of Vanity Fair, Michael Schnayerson reported that Follieri rented the Celine Ashley for the month of August 2006. Montenegro's leading daily newspaper, Vijesti, earlier reported that during McCain's visit in 2006 he celebrated with birthday cocktails and sweets aboard the Celine Ashley yacht. In the photograph, taken in Montenegro at the end of August, McCain is shown boarding the yacht ramp towards the smiling Follieri and Hathaway. Just ahead of McCain and shaking hands with Follieri appears to be Rick Davis--McCain's top aide and now co-manager of his campaign, who accompanied him on the trip and advised the government of Montenegro. A few months after McCain's yacht party, Follieri strengthened his ties to McCain's orbit by retaining Rick Davis's well-connected Washington lobbying firm, Davis Manafort, and offering Davis both an investment deal and help in securing the Catholic vote for McCain's presidential bid. .........

if the american people

want to elect someone who is this fucking ignorant and STUPID, well then go right ahead. i will NOT be among you. i will be voting for barack obama

this is what the fucking moron said:

Palin Links Iraq to Sept. 11 In Talk to Troops in Alaska

By Anne E. Kornblut

Washington Post Staff Writer
FORT WAINWRIGHT, Alaska, Sept. 11 -- Gov. Sarah Palin linked the war in Iraq with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, telling an Iraq-bound brigade of soldiers that included her son that they would "defend the innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans."

The idea that the Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein helped al-Qaeda plan the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a view once promoted by Bush administration officials, has since been rejected even by the president himself. But it is widely agreed that militants allied with al-Qaeda have taken root in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion.

"America can never go back to that false sense of security that came before September 11, 2001," she said at the deployment ceremony, which drew hundreds of military families who walked from their homes on the sprawling post to the airstrip where the service was held.......

borrowed this from

cv rick's blog

another must read

Zombie feminists of the RNC

How did Sarah Palin become a symbol of women's empowerment? And how did I, a die-hard feminist, end up terrified at the idea of a woman in the White House?

By Rebecca Traister

Sept. 11, 2008 | I have been dreaming about Sarah Palin. (Apparently, I'm not alone.) I wish I could say that I'd been conjuring witty, politically sophisticated nightmares in which she leads troops into Vancouver or kindergartners in the recitation of "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." But, alas, mine have been nonsensical, kiddie-style doozies in which she kidnaps my cats, or enjoys a meal with my girlfriends while I bang on the restaurant window. There's also a chilling one, in which a scary witch stands on a wind-swept hill and leers at me.

What troubles me most -- aside from the fact that there is suddenly a Republican candidate potent enough to so ensnare my psyche -- is my sense that these are dreams in which it matters very much that Palin is a woman.........

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

Welcome to 2008, the year a tough, wonky woman won a primary (lots of them, actually), an inspiring black man secured his party's nomination for the presidency, and a television talking head felt free to opine that a woman is qualified for executive office because he wants to bed her and have her watch his kids! Stop the election; I want to get off.

What Palin so seductively represents, not only to Donny Deutsch but to the general populace, is a form of feminine power that is utterly digestible to those who have no intellectual or political use for actual women. It's like some dystopian future ... feminism without any feminists.

Palin's femininity is one that is recognizable to most women: She's the kind of broad who speaks on behalf of other broads but appears not to like them very much. The kind of woman who, as Jessica Grose at Jezebel has eloquently noted, achieves her power by doing everything modern women believed they did not have to do: presenting herself as maternal and sexual, sucking up to men, evincing an absolute lack of native ambition, instead emphasizing her luck as the recipient of strong male support and approval. ..........

from national geographic

click to enlarge the picture. you must read the caption
(found via dark roasted blend)elephant

i have a new super secret crush

october 7, 2001

was the day we invaded afghanistan

how are we doing?

not well. not well at all. the people dislike us. it doesn't help we just killed over 90 civilians AND DENIED IT HAPPENED until someone had video proof. then we started to back peddle and say we'd LOOK INTO IT FURTHER

what the hell are we actually DOING? we're not 'winning'. seven years. we're america. seven years. wtf is going on?

Top military officer warns that U.S. isn't winning in Afghanistan

By Nancy A. Youssef | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Warning that the United States could lose the war in Afghanistan, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff announced Wednesday that he'd ordered a "more comprehensive" strategy there to address the growing cross-border insurgency.

Testifying on Capitol Hill, Adm. Michael Mullen gave a blunt assessment of the U.S. effort in Afghanistan: "I am not convinced that we're winning it in Afghanistan. I'm convinced we can."

Mullen and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates appeared before the House Armed Services Committee a day after President Bush announced that the U.S. would increase its presence in Afghanistan by 1,500 troops. Gates, who focused on Iraq, told the committee he thought that the U.S. strategy in Iraq has "entered that end game."

Their testimony was a public airing of a discussion that's going on within the Pentagon about how quickly the military can shift its focus from Iraq to Afghanistan. While violence has dropped precipitously in Iraq, it's climbed in Afghanistan. U.S. troop deaths there are higher than Iraq now, despite a far smaller presence. In addition, insurgent groups increasingly are taking control of villages..........

i don't understand

why ANYONE watches faux is beyond me. i do not understand why one person would watch their 'news' channel AT ALL. well perhaps if you got high (like back in the day when you'd get high and watch fantasia or reefer madness or something like that) and wanted something to make you laugh, THEN and ONLY THEN would i get it, BUT just barely. you'd be pushing it

because lesbian air america hosts are MORE dangerous to america than no health care, no comprehensive sex education, crime, lack of care for victims of natural disasters, joblessness, homelessness, veterans care, osama bin laden, the price of oil, failing economies, illegal unjust immoral wars, killing innocent civilians, the current american government directly responsible for murdering american serivce women and men (not counting the ones that are dykes and faggots because they don't count anyway*)

Fox News Attacks 'Lesbian Air America Host'

Posted by Brent Budowsky, Smirking Chimp

Even by the low standards of the Republican News Network, this morning's attack on Rachel Maddow, on the Fox News network, as a "lesbian Air America host" was a despicable new low. Those words, an open appeal to bigotry and hate, said by an alleged media analyst named Tim Graham, were met with laughter and chortles by the Fox News team on air. This is sick and despicable stuff, even for Fox News.

Here is a message to Barack Obama: You need to spend more time fighting back against the lies and smears of a Swift Boat campaign more ugly than the campaign against John Kerry, and less time having sweet-talk meetings with Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes followed by professorial discourse with Bill O'Reilly. This is war, Barack, and you had better fight back.

The sickness and dementia of a purported news network airing with smug laughs and happy chortles a naked appeal to hatred and bigotry in this attack on "a lesbian Air America host" is a low that even a Republican cable organization like Fox should never stoop to............

*in case you are REALLY stupid that was sarcasm there

oh no!

corruption, lies, bribes, illicit sex, lions and tigers and bears oh my....in the OIL INDUSTRY and those that are in charge to oversee it??????????

oh it's SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO hard to believe.

Interior Dept. Officials Embroiled in Energy Ethics Scandal

By Derek Kravitz and Mary Pat Flaherty

Washington Post Staff Writers
Government officials in charge of collecting billions of dollars worth of royalties from oil and gas companies accepted lavish gifts, steered contracts to favored firms and engaged in illicit sex with employees of the energy companies, federal investigators reported today.
Investigators from the Interior Department's inspector general's office said more than a dozen employees, including the former director of the oil royalty program, accepted gifts including ski trips, sports tickets and golf outings. The report alleges that the former director, Gregory W. Smith, also arranged side deals that personally netted him more than $30,000. ...........

andrew sullivan has surprised me again

i really shouldn't be because he's surprised me in the past more than once. it's a pleasant one too!

McCain's Integrity

by: Andrew Sullivan, The Atlantic
Editor's Note: Historically a John McCain supporter, conservative journalist and blogger Andrew Sullivan takes on the issue of John McCain's integrity as he strives to win the presidency. - vh/TO

For me, this surreal moment - like the entire surrealism of the past ten days - is not really about Sarah Palin or Barack Obama or pigs or fish or lipstick. It's about John McCain. The one thing I always thought I knew about him is that he is a decent and honest person. When he knows, as every sane person must, that Obama did not in any conceivable sense mean that Sarah Palin is a pig, what did he do? Did he come out and say so and end this charade? Or did he acquiesce in and thereby enable the mindless Rovianism that is now the core feature of his campaign?

So far, he has let us all down. My guess is he will continue to do so. And that decision, for my part, ends whatever respect I once had for him. On core moral issues, where this man knew what the right thing was, and had to pick between good and evil, he chose evil.............

hmmmmmmmmmmmm

from picoolio scandalous ads via vintage photographs

for jean (and the rest of my lego-loving friends)

create create create

from more cowbell dj adjust your cowbell AND your christopher walken (found via boing boing)

i must say all four of the songs i tried DID NOT work. however, there are plenty of ones already done you can listen to

	Make your own at MoreCowbell.dj

the lies to nowhere

this woman has NO bid-nez being in politics. let her stick to going to church and praying for pipelines and more wars

Setting The Record: Palin's Earmarks

CBS Evening News: Reality Checking The Alaska Governor's "Bridge To Nowhere" Claims

(CBS) Its one of those claims that gets so much applause.

"I told Congress 'thanks but no thanks,' to that bridge to nowhere," Palin has said over and over on the campaign trail, CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews reports.

Gov. Sarah Palin just won't let it go. But the truth is the governor never rebuffed Congress. Here are the facts.

After a year of supporting the proposed bridge, near Ketchikan, Gov. Palin pulled state funds from the project, which killed the bridge for good, but she never said "no thanks" to the Federal funds promised by Congress -- $233 million.

In fact, here's the list of how Palin is spending those federal tax dollars - on other highway projects around Alaska. As a candidate for governor, she defended every dollar for roads and bridges the state could wrangle from Washington, according to the Congressional Record and the Alaska Department of Transportation. ..........

talk about celebutards

what could they possibly be hiding? why NOT answer questions. are you doing your best BIG DICK impersonation? do you only have a couple of speeches memorized and are you afraid to veer off of the plotted course?

AP Hits Palin for Not Taking Questions
By Sara Kugler, The Associated Press
LEBANON, OHIO John McCain took a risk in picking little-known Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as a running mate, but now the campaign's playing it safer. She's sticking to a greatest hits version of her convention speech on the campaign trail and steering clear of questions until she's comfortable enough for a hand-picked interviewer later this week.

More than 40 million people tuned in last week to listen to the speech from Palin, the 44-year-old first-term governor whom McCain announced as his surprise vice presidential pick just days before. Since then, that basic script is all anyone has heard from her publicly, and her only interaction with the media was a brief conversation with a small group of reporters on her plane Monday — off the record at her handlers' insistence.

Associated Press reporters were not on the plane, but an aide told the journalists on board that all Palin flights would be off the record unless the media were told otherwise. At least one reporter objected. Two people on the flight said the Palins greeted the media and they chatted about who had been to Alaska, but little else was said.

By comparison, her Democratic counterpart, Joe Biden, has been campaigning on his own for weeks, at times taking questions from audiences. ............

Anchorage Daily Wants Palin to Answer Questions
By E&P Staff
NEW YORK It's not just national reporters who wants some answers from new vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Back in her home state, The Anchorage Daily News has raised questions about her views and records for more than a week -- actually, going back years -- and now wants some answers.

In an editorial today it declares from the start, "There's no polite way to say it: Sarah Palin has been hiding out from hard questions. It took 10 days from when John McCain announced his pick until the McCain campaign agreed to schedule Palin an unscripted interview with a serious journalist....

"McCain's camp has handled their vice-presidential pick like some celebrity who will only deign to give an interview if conditions are favorable.....

"Palin has accused Barack Obama of being a me-first celebrity candidate for president. At least he has been facing media questions for the past 18 months.......

here's the actual anchorage daily article:

Questions for Palin

This week, she'll finally emerge from her protective shell

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

• In spring of 2004, the Daily News reported that you cited family considerations in deciding not to try for the U.S. Senate: "How could I be the team mom if I was a U.S. senator?" What was different this time as you decided to run for vice president?

• As governor of Alaska, you have not pushed for laws or regulations that put your personal views on abortion, same-sex marriage and creationism into public policy. As vice president, will you push to outlaw abortion, restrict same-sex marriage and require the teaching of creationism?

• If you were a fully qualified vice-presidential candidate from the get-go, why did you wait more than 10 days to face reporters?

• McCain spokesman Rick Davis told Fox News the media didn't show you enough "deference." How much deference do you expect to get from Vladimir Putin or Hugo Chavez?

• You have said victory is in sight in Iraq. In July 2007, when you visited Kuwait, you said, "I'm not going to judge the surge." In the March 2007 issue of Alaska Business Monthly, you were asked about the surge and quoted saying:

"I've been so focused on state government, I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq. . . . While I support our president, Condoleezza Rice and the administration, I want to know that we have an exit plan in place."

Define "victory" in Iraq? What is the exit plan?................

i usually post recipes in my other blog

((Sara Remington from "Heirloom Beans")


but i wanted to post about rancho gordo here too. i did a posting on it a LONG time ago (which i cannot for the life of me locate). rancho gordo offers AMAZING heirloom beans, corn products, a little rice/grains, herbs and chile products.

today's wapo has an article on founder steve sando AND a wonderful recipe christmas lima beans and quinoa (which of course is VEGAN)

it is BEYOND me

how anyone can even think in their wildest dreams of voting republican in the upcoming election.

no osama (it has turned into oj looking for 'nicole's murderer'), 4,155 of our men and women dead FOR NO REASON in iraq (i believe that is considered MASS MURDER), no help for victims of natural disaster such as katrina (you see how fast king george got his ass down to the latest almost-hurricane? too little too late), global warming, creationism, church mixing with state all the time, women's rights threatened, endangered species taken off of protection lists, inadequate health care, inadequate insurance, inadequate education, homelessness, inaction and insanity

and why would ANYONE vote for four MORE years of this? 'splain it to me please

Federal Shortfall To Double This Year

Next President To Inherit Deficit Of $500 Billion

By Lori Montgomery

Washington Post Staff Writer

A weak economy and a sharp increase in government spending will drive the federal budget deficit to a near-record $407 billion when the budget year ends later this month, and the next president is likely to face a shortfall in January of well over $500 billion, congressional budget analysts said yesterday.

A deficit of that magnitude could severely constrain the next administration's agenda, regardless of whether Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the Republican candidate, or Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), his Democratic opponent, wins in November. Each has promised billions in new tax cuts or new spending. The expanding deficit also will increase the national debt and could impair future economic growth, particularly if lawmakers are forced to pay down that debt by raising taxes.

This year's deficit will be more than double last year's $161 billion, and it will rise from 1.2 percent of the gross domestic product to nearly 3 percent. If the next president extends some or all of President Bush's signature tax cuts, as both candidates have promised, annual deficits could balloon to as much as 5 percent of the economy, rivaling the dark fiscal days of the early-1990s and those of the Reagan administration, said Peter Orszag, director of the Congressional Budget Office........

i love the pictures on

wooster collective

From Rosemary:

"The night is mine.

I saw this walking home from the train station after I was at the Speakeasy Illustration show in Toronto. The crosswalk box thing made this shadow on the ground and someone drew a most perfect Batman face on it! I laughed so hard when I saw it. So unexpected and awesome!

Spotted near the corner of Iroquois Shore on Trafalgar road in Oakville Ontario. "

(found via boing boing)

back peddling

what would have happened if there was NO video and NO pictures? would the military and our government continue to deny they killed children and women? LOTS OF CHILDREN AND WOMEN? how can they live with themselves? how could they continue to deny it when independent observers said it was true? they did continue to deny it for almost a month.

it's mighty mighty white of 'em to decide to send a team out (NOW) to investigate (when they have NO choice but to do so. since the proof is pretty damn air tight that WE KILLED KIDS)

my original posting

U.S. Team to Reinvestigate Deadly Strike In Afghanistan

By Candace Rondeaux and Karen DeYoung

Washington Post Foreign Service

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Sept. 8 -- The U.S. Central Command will send a senior team, headed by a general and including a legal affairs officer, to reinvestigate a U.S. air attack last month that U.N. and Afghan officials say killed 90 civilians, amid mounting public outrage in Afghanistan and evidence that conflicts with the military's initial version of events.

The U.S. decision to again probe the Aug. 21 attack in Azizabad, near the western city of Herat, came at the urging of Gen. David D. McKiernan, the top NATO commander in Afghanistan. McKiernan said he was prompted by "emerging evidence" that threw into question the finding of a U.S. investigation that five to seven civilians died. McKiernan had earlier said he concurred with that finding.............

the nutmeg grater: Helen Ubi�as nails it

the nutmeg grater: Helen Ubi�as nails it

do we really want this woman even running the state of alaska?

seems like she and the first dude have a LOAD O' 'SPLAININ' TO DO

motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/09/9620_sarah_palin_secret_email.html">

Sarah Palin's Secret Emails

The Palin administration won't release hundreds of emails from her office, claiming they cover confidential policy matters. Then why do the subject lines refer to a political foe, a journalist, and non-policy topics?

In June, Andrée McLeod, a self-described independent government watchdog in Alaska, sent an opens record act request to the office of Governor Sarah Palin. She requested copies of all the emails that had been sent and received by Ivy Frye and Frank Bailey, two top aides to Palin, from February through April of this year. McLeod, a 53-year-old registered Republican who has held various jobs in state government, suspected that Frye and Bailey had engaged in political activity during official business hours in that period by participating in a Palin-backed effort to oust the state chairman of the Alaska Republican party, Randy Ruedrich. (Bailey has been in the national news of late for refusing to cooperate with investigators probing whether Palin fired Alaska's public safety commission because he did not dismiss a state trooper who had gone through an ugly divorce with Palin's sister.)

In response to her request, McLeod received four large boxes of emails. This batch of documents did not contain any proof that Frye and Bailey had worked on government time to boot out Ruedrich. But there was other information she found troubling. Several of the emails suggested to her that Palin's office had used its influence to reward a Fairbanks surveyor who was a Palin fundraiser with a state job. In early August, McLeod filed a complaint with the state attorney general against Palin, Bailey, and other Palin aides, claiming they had violated ethics and hiring laws. Palin, now the Republican vice-presidential candidate, told the Alaska Daily News that "there were no favors done for anybody."............

let us pray

and let us charge the citizens for the prayer

State paid for trip when Palin told students to pray for pipeline

By RICHARD MAUER
Gov. Sarah Palin used state funds in June when she traveled from Juneau to Wasilla to speak to graduating evangelical students and urge them to fan out through Alaska "to make sure God's will be done here."

State records show that Palin submitted a travel authorization for a quick round-trip visit to attend the June 8 graduation of the Master's Commission program at the Wasilla Assembly of God, the church where she was baptized at age 12. The only other item on the agenda for that trip was a "One Lord Sunday" service involving a network of Mat-Su Christian churches earlier that morning at the Wasilla sports complex.

The records show Palin flew from Juneau on Saturday, June 7. She returned to Juneau that Monday afternoon. The plane tickets cost the state $519.50, and she claimed an additional $120 for meals and other expenses........

another eye opening article on sarevil

and more specifically mr sarevil, toddevil. how much IS he in the background and how much is he actually in the forefront? don't 'these people' (the evangelical holy roller types) believe women should NEVER under any circumstances lead? the answer is YES that's what they believe. (am i being prejudicial and closed-minded here? yes and i don't care)

seems like the facts speak for themselves here. give the article a read.

Vendetta row can’t hold Sarah Palin back

The governor and her husband are accused of hounding her brother-in-law. Tony Allen-Mills reports from Wasilla, Alaska

Tony Allen-Mills in Wasilla

As a former senior adviser to Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, John Bitney helped America’s newest political celebrity throughout her successful 2006 election campaign, became the spokesman for her incoming administration and was ultimately named her chief liaison to the Alaskan legislature.

Bitney grew up with Palin, played in a high school band with her and, like many other Alaskans, was awed by her rapid rise from a moose-infested rural backwater to the pinnacle of power in her state.

He was one of her oldest and most loyal friends but when Palin abruptly sacked Bitney in July last year, she somehow failed to tell him. The first he learnt of it was when his state-issued mobile phone stopped working as he was driving to his office. He used another phone to check in and discovered that his name had been removed from the state employee directory.

His offence, according to senior Republican sources in Anchorage, was to fall foul of Palin’s 43-year-old husband, Todd. It was an early sign that the self-styled “first dude” of Alaskan politics was playing an unexpectedly prominent role in his wife’s administration.........

photo: (AP/Al Grillo)

they'll never see them

so US getting a glimpse of the documents is absolutely out of the question. if the big dick hasn't destroyed them already, he will shortly. and what will happen to him for breaking laws? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING

Lawsuit to Ask That Cheney's Papers Be Made Public

By Christopher Lee

Washington Post Staff Writer

Months before the Bush administration ends, historians and open-government advocates are concerned that Vice President Cheney, who has long bristled at requirements to disclose his records, will destroy or withhold key documents that illustrate his role in forming U.S. policy for the past 7 1/2 years.

In a preemptive move, several of them have agreed to join the advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington in asking a federal judge to declare that Cheney's records are covered by the Presidential Records Act of 1978 and cannot be destroyed, taken or withheld without proper review.

The group expects to file the lawsuit today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia........

what's another word for ahhhhhh ummmmmm

i never heard of

socotra island. i want to go (although it does belong to yemen and i do NOT wish to go there).

i found these pictures via dark roasted blend

i can't believe how cool this island looks.