cool!

want help writing? all you had to do was ask! dr wicked will help you!




(found via bifurcated rivets)

local, sustainable, organic

FIND GOOD FOOD:

the eat well guide
(this is kind of a cool site. let's you put in trip data so you'll have good food once you get there!)

Finding the Best, Local Food Near You Just Got Easier
By Tara Lohan, AlterNet.

Food is making big headlines, and it's about time.

In a year marked by rising food prices and riots throughout the world, we've seen what happens when the reality of our energy, climate and water crises collides with trying to feed a planet.

As Vandana Shiva writes in her newest book, Soil Not Oil, "The era of cheap food and cheap oil is over." Add to this changing precipitation patterns, melting glaciers and increasing drought from climate change, and we have a recipe for disaster.

Michael Pollan has warned the next incoming U.S president, "What this means is that you, like so many other leaders through history, will find yourself confronting the fact -- so easy to overlook these past few years -- that the health of a nation's food system is a critical issue of national security. Food is about to demand your attention."

While Barack Obama may have his hands full, the rest of us need to be thinking about our plates. Interestingly, one of the ways to start doing this would be to stay right where you are -- in front of your computer, that is. While technology may not always have been the best companion to agriculture (think biotech), the Internet has emerged as an incredible tool for planning the future of food. A Web site called the Eat Well Guide is hoping to help people make good decisions about what they eat and how, with a few clicks of the mouse.........

our bodies, our selves (what goes around....)

from naral pro-choice america:

On November 4, we saw what happens when young people dedicate themselves, rise up, and speak out for change.

NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation has long connected with this next generation of advocates—and we’re not about to stop. Today, I want to announce that we’re launching a new campaign to build on young people’s historic levels of engagement in the political process and to bring their passion and energy to secure the future of our pro-choice America.

Our campaign is called free.will.power and we’re kicking it off with a new video that uses inspiring animation and empowering music to frame women’s freedom and privacy in a way we’ve never seen before.

Click here to watch it now.

This video, called “Free,” is the first of three videos we are releasing in the coming weeks as part of our new campaign. We’re hoping these videos will engage more young Americans on the critical issues of choice, freedom, and privacy—and we need your help to make sure our campaign succeeds.

Will you watch our “Free” spoken word video and share it with a young person in your life?

Together we can protect the future of our pro-choice America.

i still want to know

how they're going to pay for the INNOCENT CIVILIAN LIVES they took (in iraq and goddess only knows where else). fines for weapons in dog food bags but what about the MURDERS?

0h and what sorts of contracts do we still hold with them? we know they murdered civilians we're alleging they smuggled guns and silencers into iraq (some of which got into the hands of the wrong people).....so are we still employing them? (we all know the answer to that)

New Blackwater Iraq Scandal: Guns, Silencers and Dog Food

by: Brian Ross and Jason Ryan, ABC News
Ex-employees tell ABC News the firm used dog food sacks to smuggle unauthorized weapons to Iraq.

A federal grand jury in North Carolina is investigating allegations the controversial private security firm Blackwater illegally shipped assault weapons and silencers to Iraq, hidden in large sacks of dog food, ABCNews.com has learned.

Under State Department rules, Blackwater is prohibited from using certain assault weapons and silencers in Iraq because they are considered "offensive" weapons inappropriate for Blackwater's role as a private security firm protecting US diplomatic missions.

"The only reason you need a silencer is if you want to assassinate someone," said former CIA intelligence officer John Kiriakou, an ABC News consultant.

Also See:
Blackwater Likely to Be Fined Millions in Iraq Weapons Case •

Six Blackwater employees are under investigation by another federal grand jury, in Washington, D.C., in connection with the shooting deaths of at least 17 civilians in September, 2007, at a Baghdad traffic circle. Prosecutors are expected to return indictments in the next few weeks, according to people familiar with the case......

the 100 greatest singers of all time

as compiled by rolling stone



if i compiled the list first thing i'd do is TAKE AXL THE EFF OFF OF IT
it's a pretty cool list though. lots of the chosen one's blurbs are written by other artists

van made #24 though (he's #1 in MY book)

Photo: Rivas/AFP/Getty

larisa

has the latest (and most detailed) scoop on the siegelman fiasco. justice must be served here (as well as with the entire king george administration AND entities like blackwater too!). may them ALL accountable. don siegelman was framed and even a 3 year old can see that

The Siegelman nail in the Bush administration coffin...

Or as they say, time to pay the piper:

Next month in Atlanta, a federal court will hear the high-profile appeal of former Alabama governor Don E. Siegelman, whose conviction on corruption charges in 2006 became one of the most publicly debated cases to emerge from eight years of controversy at the Bush Justice Department. Now new documents highlight alleged misconduct by the Bush-appointed U.S. attorney and other prosecutors in the case, including what appears to be extensive and unusual contact between the prosecution and the jury.

Remember, we knew about this, but Time has gotten the documents. Remember too, that the Bush appointed-Karl Rove-friend-judge on the case, Mark Fuller, knew about the jury tampering and discounted it. Onwards:

The documents, obtained by TIME, include internal prosecution e-mails given to the Justice Department and Congress by a whistle-blower during the last 18 months. John Conyers, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which investigated the Siegelman case as part of a broader inquiry into alleged political interference in the hiring and firing of U.S. attorneys by the Bush Justice Department, last week sent an eight-page letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey citing the new material.

Conyers says the evidence raises "serious questions" about the U.S. Attorney in the Siegelman case, who, documents show, continued to involve herself in the politically charged prosecution long after she had publicly withdrawn to avoid an alleged conflict of interest relating to her husband, a top GOP operative and close associate of Bush adviser Karl Rove. Conyers' letter also cites evidence of numerous contacts between jurors and members of the Siegelman prosecution team that were never disclosed to the trial judge or defense counsel.

Remember too, that the DOJ lied to me when I demanded to know if Leura Canary had recused herself from the case. I was told that she had. When I demanded documentation, they told me that the documents were not public (really? a federal prosecutor's rescusal documentation are private?). And the cover-up continued:

When the House Judiciary Committee looked into the Siegelman affair earlier this year, DoJ issued statements, placed in the Congressional record, maintaining that the case had been handled only by career prosecutors, not political appointees, and that Canary had recused herself in 2002, "before any significant decisions ... were made."........

i've been reading about hannah

for the past week now. i'm feeling a bit of everything. i WANT her to WANT the new heart but at the same time, i understand the decision she made. she has suffered for more than half of her young life. a transplant may very well kill her anyway. if it DID take, she'd have to get another one in about 10 years time. she'd have to be on heavy duty meds for the rest of her life

at 13, hannah made a decision. hannah, you have moved me a great deal. hannah you're wise well beyond your 13 years.

Britain Debates a Child's Right to Choose Her Own Fate
By Kevin Sullivan
Washington Post Foreign Service
LONDON, Nov. 13 -- Hannah Jones needs a heart transplant. But after nine years of battling leukemia and heart disease, she has had enough of hospitals, operations, drugs and constant pain. So she has opted to skip the surgery and die at home in the company of her family.

Hannah is 13 years old, and her case has prompted a wrenching public debate in Britain.

Her story has dominated headlines this week, and people have found themselves staring sadly at her serious young face, unsmiling and freckled, looking back at them from newspaper pages.

"I'm not a normal 13-year-old," she told reporters this week, short of breath and speaking in clipped sentences. "I'm a deep thinker. I've had to be, with my illness. It's hard, at 13, to know I'm going to die. But I also know what's best for me."

The case has raised complex questions about children's legal rights to decide their own medical care, and whether such cases are private tragedies or matters to be decided by governments and courts. .....

found on the streets of chicago

via wooster collective

near the end

down toward the 4:40 minute mark is so wicked cool. this is how i want to look 24/7. this IS how i look on the inside

farfale (butterflies) from 1907)

................This film, produced by the Italian company Cinès, presents viewers with one of many imitations of the serpentine dancer Loïe Fuller. The fathers of cinema all made their contribution to this essential genre. Edison and Dickson, as well as Louis Lumière and Paul Nadar propelled the first serpentine dancers to fame: Annabella (1897), Crissie Sheridan (1897), and Ameta (1903)...............

click on the link above to see the film. it will make you warm all over.

found via boing boing

and to think, back in the day

i used to like dennis miller

he's a pasty-faced bloated steamin' pile. what happened to him?

you do know i'm attempting NOT to write about sarevil anymore. i KNOW full well if you stop feeding her she'll go away (with her lipstick and tail between her legs). but I CAN'T STOP. THERE'S JUST TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH OUT THERE

Dennis Miller: Liberal women hate Sarah Palin because ‘she has a great sex life.’»

On the O’Reilly factor last night, Dennis Miller declared that liberal women hate Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) because “she has a great sex life”:

She’s a great dame. People are fascinated by her because the Left hate her. I think the Left hate her — mostly women on the Left hate her — because to me from outside in it appears that she has a great sex life, all right? I think she has non-neurotic sex with that Todd Palin guy. … I think that snow mobile looks like mechanized foreplay to me and that’s why people are fascinated.

please read this

well if you're at my blog, chances are you DO NOT have to read this. it's 'the others' who aren't on my end of the spectrum who should be reading this

it's a 4 year old interview with then just nominated for senator barack obama. it's about his spiritual beliefs and followings and thoughts.

Obama's Fascinating Interview with Cathleen Falsani

.......................FALSANI:
What do you believe?

OBAMA:
I am a Christian.

So, I have a deep faith. So I draw from the Christian faith.

On the other hand, I was born in Hawaii where obviously there are a lot of Eastern influences.

I lived in Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world, between the ages of six and 10.

My father was from Kenya, and although he was probably most accurately labeled an agnostic, his father was Muslim.

And I'd say, probably, intellectually I've drawn as much from Judaism as any other faith.

(A patron stops and says, "Congratulations," shakes his hand. "Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Thank you.")

So, I'm rooted in the Christian tradition. I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people. That there are values that transcend race or culture, that move us forward, and there's an obligation for all of us individually as well as collectively to take responsibility to make those values lived.

And so, part of my project in life was probably to spend the first 40 years of my life figuring out what I did believe - I'm 42 now - and it's not that I had it all completely worked out, but I'm spending a lot of time now trying to apply what I believe and trying to live up to those values................

this didn't happen in

texas or alabama or mississippi or georgia. it can't happen here? well it can and it did. in long island

Citizens Fight Back Against Hate After the Brutal Murder of Marcello Lucero
Posted by Lisa Votino-Tarrant, Long Island Wins

Last weekend, 7 teenage punks murdered Marcello Lucero, because they wanted to go get a "a mexican." It didn't matter who or what or where. It didn't matter that they ended an innocent man's life. It didn't matter that they were throwing their whole lives away. They were apparently consumed with hate and Marcello, an Ecuadorian immigrant, who was on his way to his friend's house to watch a movie, was what they decided to take their hate out on.

Marcello's Father passed away when he was a young boy and took over the role of the man of the house. He moved to the United States 16 years ago. His brother and sister live on Long Island and his mother and younger sister live in Ecuador.

I have spent my week in Patchogue at press conferences and small rallies in memory of Marcello. I have come to know many of the local community people and they are petrified to leave their house without a group of people. I also know that the Patchogue Librarian said she had many calls from her ESOL students saying they weren't coming to class, that they were to afraid to walk there.........

there is a candlelight vigil tonight in honor of marcello lucero (it says 'tomorrow' below but that is because the article is from yesterday)

........

It is time for all of us, no matter who you are or what you are, to come together and show that these crimes, do not represent us. Tomorrow night, Friday, November 14th at 7:00pm, people from all across Long Island will be holding a candlelight vigil in honor of Marcello Lucero, to say NO to HATE. We will be meeting at the scene of the crime, behind the west side of the Patchogue train station.

If you have plans, consider canceling them. It has never been more important with these three crimes that we say enough is enough. This is not who we are. This is not what we do. And we want everyone to live healthy and happy lives in Suffolk County.

Many have asked about the weather … hate knows no weather … and neither do we! The rally will be held rain or shine.............................

if anyone has any questions, please call or email me. If you are looking for up-to-the-minute news and thought on everything that is happening, visit where I blog, www.longislandwins.com.

wwjd?

certainly NOT what the right 'reverend' newman is doing

judge, jury AND executioner

oh, and this is SOME separation of church and state too. PLUS and a BIG PLUS it is, it's none of his fucking bid-nez who the fuck his parishioners voted for

sort of wondering if the 'n' word is on the tip of this dude's tongue too.

did a search on the mighty one who judges others (wonder how he feels about pedophiles? wonder how he supports babies born to people who can't care for them?) he's an 'evangelical catholic'. sort of makes sense. and NO i'm not going to link to his site. fuck him

SC priest: No communion for Obama supporters
By MEG KINNARD, Associated Press Writer

COLUMBIA, S.C. – A South Carolina Roman Catholic priest has told his parishioners that they should refrain from receiving Holy Communion if they voted for Barack Obama because the Democratic president-elect supports abortion, and supporting him "constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil."

The Rev. Jay Scott Newman said in a letter distributed Sunday to parishioners at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Greenville that they are putting their souls at risk if they take Holy Communion before doing penance for their vote.

"Our nation has chosen for its chief executive the most radical pro-abortion politician ever to serve in the United States Senate or to run for president," Newman wrote, referring to Obama by his full name, including his middle name of Hussein.

"Voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exists constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil, and those Catholics who do so place themselves outside of the full communion of Christ's Church and under the judgment of divine law................

i hope everybody either already knows

or remembers THERE WAS NO AL-QAEDA IN IRAQ until WE brought them there. yes, WE did. WE illegally, immorally and unjustly invaded a foreign land who did NOTHING to us (iraq did NOT destroy the world trade center. yes, loads of people STILL believe they did). sure saddam was evil and had to go but do did and do a lot of other killers and despots. we don't invade THEIR lands (although we actually SHOULD be helping out with the people of these many lands)

this is SO effing bizarre. the cia director now says that the threat from al-qaeda (in iraq) isn't that big a deal. REMEMBER - IT WAS NO 'DEAL' AT ALL UNTIL WE PROVOKED THEM TO BE THERE. it's ALL on us. ALL of it

and remember 4,196***

CIA Chief: Iraq Not Main Front
But Hayden Says Al-Qaeda Remains Greatest Threat to U.S.

By Walter Pincus

Washington Post Staff Writer

CIA Director Michael V. Hayden said yesterday that al-Qaeda remains the single greatest threat to the United States but that Iraq is no longer the central front in the broader war on terrorism.

"Today, the flow of money, weapons and foreign fighters into Iraq is greatly diminished and al-Qaeda senior leaders no longer point to it as the central battlefield," Hayden told an audience at the Atlantic Council, a bipartisan group that deals with international affairs. But he warned that al-Qaeda remains "a determined, adaptive enemy" that is resilient and operating "from its safe haven in Pakistan's tribal areas."

"If there is a major strike on this country, it will bear the fingerprints of al-Qaeda," he said. While law enforcement and diplomacy have their place, Hayden said, "this war -- and no one should mistake it as anything else -- is far from over.".......

***united states deaths in iraq (as of 11/14/2008)

c'mon now

you're being a too gloomy-greta! the violence wasn't THAT bad. it was committed against a WOMAN after all. it's not like he hit another MAN or anything...................

let's arm 'em all. and while we're at it let's make sure 8 year olds are allowed to fire weapons too. THAT'S important to their education!


(although domestic violence transcends all races, religions, sexual orientations, beliefs, etc)
a GIANT fuck you to scalia


Justice Scalia: Domestic Violence is "not that serious an offense"
Dahlia Lithwick at the XX Factor highlights the assholedom that is Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who thinks violence against women is "not that serious an offense."

Yesterday the Supreme Court heard a case about the reach of the Federal Gun Control Act and whether it includes someone convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence.

...Courtesy of the LA Times' David Savage, here's a report of oral argument, which evidently went poorly for the proponents of disarming wife beaters. Of note in the transcript is the following exchange between Justice Antonin Scalia and Nicole Saharsky, the Justice Department lawyer arguing for the stricter interpretation of the law.

JUSTICE SCALIA: And this was misdemeanor assault and battery, wasn't it?

MS. SAHARSKY: Yes, that's right. I mean, I really--

JUSTICE SCALIA: So it's not that serious an offense. That's why we call it a misdemeanor.

MS. SAHARSKY: Well, I mean, certainly the offense is this particular case was serious. The charging document reflects that Respondent hit his wife all around the face until it swelled out, kicked her all around her body, kicked here in the ribs--.................

nice!

(photos by John Michaels)

Stainless Steel Cars
John Michaels sends us this interesting bit of automotive history... Here is a 1936 Ford Tudor Sedan (1 of only 4 in existence), built for and owned by Allegheny Ludlum Steel:...........

some barack facts you may not (or may) know

i sure didn't know a lot of them


Barack Obama: The 50 facts you might not know
Fifty things you might not know about Barack Obama


By Jon Swaine
He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics

• He was known as "O'Bomber" at high school for his skill at basketball

• His name means "one who is blessed" in Swahili

• His favourite meal is wife Michelle's shrimp linguini

• He won a Grammy in 2006 for the audio version of his memoir, Dreams From My Father

• He is left-handed – the sixth post-war president to be left-handed

• He has read every Harry Potter book

• He owns a set of red boxing gloves autographed by Muhammad Ali

• He worked in a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop as a teenager and now can't stand ice cream

• His favourite snacks are chocolate-peanut protein bars

• He ate dog meat, snake meat, and roasted grasshopper while living in Indonesia

• He can speak Spanish

• While on the campaign trail he refused to watch CNN and had sports channels on instead......................

Barack is Mac, and Pac?
Posted by Xeni Jardin,
.........Apparently, America's president-elect is a Mac user, a Pac Man fan, and likes sticking stickers on one's laptop. I really dig the pac-man eating the Apple logo. Is that a Speck clear MacBook cover? Commenters: let the Apple/Obama fanboy flamewars fly!.........

(got the picture from the boing boing link but there is not a credit for it. it may have come from a newsweek article, but i'm uncertain)

cinemark

or is it cinehomophobe?

Cinemark CEO gave $9,999 to anti-gay Prop 8 bigots
........Cinemark. 2700 screens in 13 countries in North and South America. It's CEO, Alan Stock, gave $9,999 to the anti-gay bigots running Prop 8 in California. Time to avoid this cinema like the plague............

apparently

the assholes who made this decision NEVER SAW STAR TREK IV OR HEARD FAREWELL TO TARWATHIE







Supreme Court: National Security Trumps Whales, Environmental Law
By Brandon Keim
It's a loud, sad day off the coast of California: the Supreme Court today ruled in favor of the Navy and against environmentalists who argued that military sonar frequencies kill whales.

"The balance of equities and the public interest ... tip strongly in favor of the Navy," wrote Chief Justice John Roberts in the majority opinion. "The Navy’s need to conduct realistic training with active sonar to respond to the threat posed by enemy submarines plainly outweighs the interests advanced by the plaintiffs."

On the legal side of the whales is the Natural Resources Defense Council, who in 2005 filed a lawsuit in Santa Monica, California, contending that the Navy's use of mid-frequency sonar in whale-rich areas violates the Environmental Policy Act, Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act.

"By the Navy's own estimates, even 300 miles from the source these [low frequency] sonic waves can retain an intensity of 140 decibels — a hundred times more intense than the level known to alter the behavior of large whales," reads the NRDC's marine sonar page. "Mid-frequency sonar is more widely used and has been associated with mortalities of whales."

The NRDC produced graphic evidence of whales beaching themselves in distress, their brains and ears bleeding, or suffering from "the bends" — an affliction known to deep-sea divers who surface too quickly. Sonar appeared to have disoriented the whales, which rely on sound to navigate, in much the way that unrelenting and blinding light might make life difficult for people............

wired brings us

the best fictional doomsday devices

i don't agree with all of 'em but i sure DO agree with THIS one

GREAT headline

(and good little article too)
from flagrancy to reason


like a hummer with teeth:

By my count, there are 56 open GM factories in the United States and 54 scattered across the rest of the planet.

General Motors' Director of Economic Policy, Thomas Walton, joined the global warming denial think tank the Heartland Institute in 2001. Bob Lutz, the Vice Chairman of Global Product Development, is of the opinion that global warming "is a crock of shit" and doesn't "believe in the CO2 theory".

General Motors spews propaganda into the media as "news" and spends millions of dollars every year directly lobbying our government.

It puts its money where its heart is: it's been a long time contributor to almost every crackpot anti-environmental hack shop or think tank one could probably think of - from Tech Central Station, the Reason Foundation, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Heartland Institute, the Heritage Foundation, Citizens for a Sound Economy, to the finally defunct Global Climate Coalition - that has been in the business of opposing every effort to force GM to adopt a sustainable business plan. Then they follow up decades of opposition to sound environmental policies that would have made them more competitive by lying about their own record.

Their business plan has basically amounted to trashing the environment and then blaming their employees' union for their own poor business decisions.

General Motors has been fucking America in the goatass for over half a century. .............

let us NOT get too very comfortable

we all know we had a vice presidential candidate who tried everything within her power to stir up feelings of hate and fear. she never used certain words and phrases, but i contend it was her intent to incite feelings of racism (if those feelings are there, they're there whether someone stirs the pot or not. it just doesn't HELP if you get pushed). seems like she is STILL intent on stirring up those feelings too - as evidenced by her recent 'interviews'.

since election day there have been all sorts of horrid things happening. america as a whole elected our 44th president. he just happens to be 1/2 black. remember his OTHER half is white. his blood is the same color as everyone else's though. there have been chants of violence. there have been cross burnings. there have been hate crimes. there was a newspaper who didn't print the winner of the presidential election. there are incidents every day that are ugly. if people pray, they should pray for those that have no understanding, tolerance and are full of anger, hate and fear (it's usually the people doing all the shouting about god and praying that are the very ones that need the 'alleged' result of the prayers to begin with).

anyway, JUST DON'T BE TOO DAMN COMFORTABLE. 'they' are out there with their hate and violence and fear

Local Newspapers Cover Rising Number of Racist Anti-Obama Actions in Small Towns
By Dexter Hill
NEW YORK Many conservative pundits and Republican officeholders on the national stage have reacted to the election of Barack Obama as a promising step forward in the history of race relations and democracy in the U.S. But gaining much less coverage from the national media are local reactions that are far less accepting and positive.

Away from the spotlight, many local newspapers around the country have covered recent incidents of racially-motivated reactions to last week’s election, from flags hung upside down to the dangling of nooses and cross-burnings. As we noted last week, a couple in northern New Jersey who had an Obama sign on their front lawn woke up to find the charred remains of a cross out there. Local residents today announced a "unity march" to protest the still-unsolved incident.

Now come these fresh reports.

The Associated Press revealed today, "Police on eastern Long Island are investigating reports that more than a dozen cars were spray painted with racist graffiti, reportedly including a message targeting President-elect Barack Obama. The graffiti included racist slurs and sexually graphic references. At least one resident in the quiet Mastic neighborhood told Newsday her son's car was scribbled with a message threatening to kill Obama."

Employees at Hampel's Key and Lockshop in Traverse City, Michigan, flew an American flag upside down last Wednesday protesting of the new president-elect, the Traverse City Record-Eagle reported. One worker used a racial slur during an interview with the Record-Eagle: "(The inverted flag is) an international signal for distress and we feel our country is in distress because the n----- got in," said Hampel’s employee Rod Nyland, who later apologized for the comment, according to the Record-Eagle.................

the nutmeg grater: mazel tov!

the nutmeg grater: mazel tov!

because i like them both (a lot)

and i like the song

mikey this is for you (oh ok, and me too)

it's NOT much but it's all we have for now


pic from bbc: Chris Pine (second from left) plays James Kirk in the new Star Trek film (and that's simon pegg third from the left in the back (he's scotty)

First Trek film footage unveiled
By Neil Smith
Entertainment reporter, BBC News

Lost creator JJ Abrams has unveiled footage from his Star Trek prequel at a press event in London.

The clips featured US actor Chris Pine as the young Captain Kirk, Heroes star Zachary Quinto as Mr Spock and Simon Pegg as Enterprise engineer Scotty.

The audience also saw Leonard Nimoy reprise his role as the older Mr Spock in one of four excerpts from the film.

In his introduction, Abrams said he wanted the film, to be released in May 2009, to feel "legitimate and real".

Speaking at London's Vue West End cinema on Tuesday morning, the film-maker admitted he had "never really been a huge Star Trek fan"...............

this shouldn't have happened to anyone

(forced marriage, beatings, rape) much less A TEN YEAR OLD

for her courage and bravery i salute Nujood Ali (and her lawyer shada nasser as well).

man, look at how beautiful those two are!

10-year-old girl's inspiring story opens eyes at Glamour awards

BY SEAN EVANS
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

The most talked about honoree of the 2008 Glamour Women of the Year awards was a small child of 10. Nujood Ali, who flew all the way from her native Yemen for the ritzy Carnegie Hall gala, was married off by impoverished parents to a 30-year-old man who raped and abused her.

Her father, who drew an annual salary equivalent to $900, had 18 children and couldn't afford to clothe and feed Ali so he gave her up for marriage. Though her older husband promised to wait years before becoming intimate with his child bride, he beat her and raped her on their wedding night. Ali had enough.............

Two Voices against Child Marriage and for Education

Nujood Ali, a 10-year girl old from Yemen who courageously escaped from and filed for divorce from a forced marriage, and her lawyer, Shada Nasser, addressed an audience at UNIFEM headquarters today. Both are to receive a Woman of the Year Award from Glamour magazine.

Nujood Ali was married off to a man in his 30s when she was only nine years old. Many little girls in her native Yemen and around the world suffer this kind of fate — but Nujood wouldn't stand for it. After suffering repeated beatings and rape from her husband, she ran away and went directly to the courthouse, asking for a lawyer who could help her. Human rights lawyer and feminist Shada Nasser took on her case free of charge and made history this April by winning Nujood a divorce from her husband, sending a message to the rest of Yemen that marrying girls at such premature ages would not be tolerated. Nujood, now 10, is back at her family's home on the outskirts of Sana'a and has said: "All I want to do now is finish my education. I want to be a lawyer."

Most experts say education is crucial in eradicating the cultural practice of child marriage. The Girls World Communication Center (GWCC) was founded by volunteers in 1998 to help promote female schooling in Yemen, where 65 percent of women are illiterate. ........

picture: DeCrow/AP

Nujood Ali, a 10-year old Yemeni girl, and her lawyer Shada Nasser leave the stage after being honored at the Glamour Women of the Year awards.

the nutmeg grater: see there ARE things i disagree with obama on

the nutmeg grater: see there ARE things i disagree with obama on

i believe terrorists and criminals

must pay for their actions. i believe in our united states constitution and our united states laws. i believe our civilian and our military law enforcement systems do NOT have the right to torture prisoners. i believe a person must be charged with a crime in order to be in prison. i believe a person should KNOW their charges. i believe we must have evidence in order to charge someone with a crime. i believe all those who are charged with a crime have the right to legal defense AND A TRIAL.
i believe it's illegal to spy on the citizens of the united states of america without a proper warrant.

can barack obama undo all the unjust and illegal things king george and his court did? most likely not but they can sure try. oh, and it seems like they ARE going to try

Guantanamo Closure Called Obama Priority
By Peter Finn
Washington Post Staff Writer
The Obama administration will launch a review of the classified files of the approximately 250 detainees at Guantanamo Bay immediately after taking office, as part of an intensive effort to close the U.S. prison in Cuba, according to people who advised the campaign on detainee issues.
Announcing the closure of the controversial detention facility would be among the most potent signals the incoming administration could send of its sharp break with the Bush era, according to the advisers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak for the president-elect. They believe the move would create a global wave of diplomatic and popular goodwill that could accelerate the transfer of some detainees to other countries. ..........

hey sarevil

i don't own pajamas and i'm NOT in my parent's basement

(and i'm older than you and i still think you're a steamin' pile)

by the way, even all of cohorts who LOVED and VOTED FOR barack obama are feeling mighty sorry for sarevil. NOT ME. i think she is the DEVIL INCARNATE. i do.

i think she's evil and self-absorbed and ignorant and an all around TROUBLE MAKER. i think the woman couldn't think her way out of a WET paper bag.

you can try to tell the peeps how smart you are. i know you're not. you can do and say all you want about not buying 150,000 worth of clothes (although you say YOU DIDN'T, todd got silk undies). you're NOT joe sixpack and you're NOT the girl next door and you're NOT QUALIFIED to do anything other than sit on your porch.

i wanted to try to avoid writing about her after the election but i can't. she IS evil and she IS an attention seeker and SHE is NOT who SHE SAYS SHE IS (do we really KNOW sarevil? taste of her OWN medicine).

no sympathy for me. none. no. and NO FUCKING PAJAMAS EITHER
Palin insists she knows Africa a continent, blaming 'bloggers in basements'
John Byrne
In a wide-ranging interview Monday with Fox News' Greta van Susteren in which she said "God" would show her the way to the White House, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin decried bloggers "sitting in their parents' basement, wearing their pajamas" for some of the questions that were raised about her credibility. The video appears below.

Palin also dismissed reports following last week's election suggesting she was unaware Africa was a continent, not a country, insisting the question had never arisen during discussions about the region.......

suspended?????"?????????????

fuck that

bring out the watermelon and fried chicken and let's watch the shuck and jive. fuck that. i swear to you FUCK THAT

suspended? what sort of role model is this 'teacher's aide'????

i'll tell you. a racist piece of steamin' shite


Pennsylvania teacher's aide said Obama would be shot
David Edwards and Muriel Kane
The mother of a sixteen-year-old student in the Allison Park suburb of Pittsburgh was shocked when her daughter repeated disparaging remarks made about Barack Obama by a teacher's aide at her vocational high school.

"One of the teacher's aides ... said that Obama was going to be shot and killed," Mara Gilligan told KDKA News. "And that our flag is going to be the KFC [Kentucky Fried Chicken] flag and that the new national anthem will be 'Moving On Up' -- and that all my daughter's beliefs were wrong and her children's lives were going to be ruined because Obama was elected."

Gilligan, who is white, said that her biracial daughter took the comments personally. "Being biracial, she was overjoyed that someone of color was elected, and she was so happy and excited to come to school. And for this teacher to yell these things at her and her fellow classmates was just unbelievable."
.............

..............Two organizations which have been described as explicitly racist appear to be located in Allison Park, where the incident occurred -- the American National Union, which has its mailing address there, and a chapter of the Citizens Councils of America..........

i refuse to believe this

i absolutely believe when sarevil was mayor of wasilla, women had to pay for their rape kits. THAT i believe

i cannot believe or i will NOT believe the military charges for them (off base BUT that should not matter)

please, i beg you, tell me someone got their information wrong (although i know they didn't)

Raped in the Military? You'll Have to Pay for Your Own Forensic Exam Kit
By Penny Coleman, AlterNet.

Sarah Palin's decision not to pay for rape kits when she was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, was an issue in the campaign for the White House. But allow me to introduce the large pink elephant that has been sitting quietly in the corner of the room: TRICARE, the Pentagon's Military Health System that covers active duty members, doesn't pay for off-base rape kits, either.

Spec. Patricia McCann, who served in Iraq with the Illinois Army National Guard from 2003 to 2004, raised the issue at the Winter Soldier Investigation in March. McCann read a memo issued to all MEDCOM commanders clarifying that "SAD kits" -- which are forensic rape kits -- "are not included in TRICARE coverage." *

That would put Alaska and the military in a very special category.

Women in the military are twice as likely to be raped as their civilian counterparts. In fact, "women serving in the U.S. military today are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq," Congresswoman Jane Harman, D-Calif., told the House Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs in May.

Harman said, "The scope of the problem was brought into acute focus for me during a visit to the West Los Angeles VA Health Center where I met female veterans and their doctors. My jaw dropped when the doctors told me that 41 percent of the female veterans seen there say they were victims of sexual assault while serving in the military, and 29 percent said they were raped during their military service."

In July, a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee hearing subpoenaed Kaye Whitley, director of the Pentagon's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO), to explain what the department is doing to stop the escalating sexual violence in the military. Her boss, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, ordered her not to appear..................

Pomegranates For Peace

Pomegranates For Peace

you know i'd rather watch

oprah than the view (and i HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE oprah)
why are these dipshites STILL on tv anyway? i do like joy's guts and i do like whoopi (but NOT on the view).

ewwwwwwwwwwwww

Absurd View: Hasselbeck, Shepherd suggest clergy could have been jailed without Prop 8

During the November 7 edition of ABC's The View, while discussing the passage of Proposition 8, the California ballot initiative amending the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage and effectively overturning the California Supreme Court's May 15 ruling that affirmed the constitutional right of same-sex couples to marry, co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck asserted that a "priest" in Sweden was "put in jail for not wanting to perform a marriage to a gay couple, so then they put him in jail because the law stated that you could not discriminate based on sexual preference." Later in the discussion, co-host Sherri Shepherd said: "I don't want to know that my pastor -- because, you know, the church is preaching against homosexuality, and I don't want to know that my pastor could be jailed." However, contrary to Hasselbeck and Shepherd's suggestion that as a result of the California Supreme Court's ruling -- or without the passage of Proposition 8 -- members of the clergy "could be jailed" for refusing to perform gay marriages, neither the decision by the California Supreme Court, nor Proposition 8 had anything to do with members of the clergy. The California Supreme Court's ruling applied only to state officials. The ruling directed "state officials [] [to] take all necessary and appropriate steps so that local officials may begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples" [emphasis added]. ........

you've probably read about

the 'fishy' presidential election results in alaska. well brad friedman updates us all by the way, his is THE blog to read regarding any and ALL election 'fishiness'

Alaska Update: Thousands of Ballots 'Found', One-Third Remain Uncounted in the State's Still-Fishy '08 Election
This just in from Alaska, where thousands of new ballots continue to be found each day, since it was first reported that turnout in 2008 was 11% lower than in 2004. Thousands of ballots, nearly a third of them, remain uncounted nearly a week after the election. Their numbers could explain the strange results so far in races --- such as those of the felonious Sen. Ted Stevens (R) and the under-investigation Rep. Don Young (R) --- for which pollsters had predicted decisive losses for the Republicans.

Even with the newly acknowledged ballots and even with Alaska's once-popular Gov. Sarah Palin and popular Sen. Barack Obama both on the Presidential ballot this year, turnout numbers still remain slightly below those from 2004. The Anchorage Daily News, with numbers somewhat out of date from those now posted below, called it all "puzzling" over the weekend, and pointed out much of what we've detailed here in previous posts..........

i ALMOST bought the editor's story

how they went to press way to early to print obama had won the presidency of the united states of america. almost i said. almost UNTIL I REMEMBERED THEY PRINTED MCCAIN GOT MORE VOTES THAN OBAMA IN THE COUNTY. if they knew that and waited for their counts, they knew the final counts as well. i'm NOT buying it now

video at the link
Newspaper protested for not reporting Obama win

our government LIED to us?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

(oh i cannot wait until january 20th. no, i don't think obama is perfect. yes, i do know sometimes an administration must keep secrets. no, i don't believe it should be a secret where our money is being tossed. yes, i DO believe they ALL should be made accountable)

this really is scary to me. i don't have millions locked up in banks mind you but i DO have a 401k and i made the mistake of looking at it the other day (literally it WAS a mistake. i was attempting to look at my benefits but i clicked the wrong button. i let out a howl. i specifically was NOT going to look. i'm still not over it. now dhl is laying off 9500 people in america. goddess only knows how many are going to lose their jobs in the auto industry. who knows what's happening with circut city. banks are laying off. insurance companies like the hartford are laying off. we keep shoveling money into afghanistan and iraq. i do mean shoveling. and for WHAT? we didn't get payback for 9-11. we didn't get osama. we got 4,193 dead americans is what we got. now we're shoving money down the throats of big corporations AGAIN and the american public can't know WHO is getting it and how much? nope. that ain't right)

Fed Defies Transparency Aim in Refusal to Disclose (Update2)
By Mark Pittman, Bob Ivry and Alison Fitzgerald

Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in September they would comply with congressional demands for transparency in a $700 billion bailout of the banking system. Two months later, as the Fed lends far more than that in separate rescue programs that didn't require approval by Congress, Americans have no idea where their money is going or what securities the banks are pledging in return.

``The collateral is not being adequately disclosed, and that's a big problem,'' said Dan Fuss, vice chairman of Boston- based Loomis Sayles & Co., where he co-manages $17 billion in bonds. ``In a liquid market, this wouldn't matter, but we're not. The market is very nervous and very thin.''

Bloomberg News has requested details of the Fed lending under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act and filed a federal lawsuit Nov. 7 seeking to force disclosure.............

another example of our government hard at work

(frightening i must say)

Risk versus reward

Hurricane Ike was a vivid reminder of Galveston's vulnerability as a home for the world's deadliest substances, but officials say new center is secure

By ERIC BERGER

GALVESTON — Building an ultra-secure biohazards lab on a hurricane-prone barrier island may seem like a bad idea, but that's just what federal scientists have done.

Environmentalists and some Galveston community leaders have raised concerns about the $176 million, seven-story lab where researchers will study the world's deadliest viruses and bacteria, such as anthrax, Ebola and the plague.

Yet, the project's backers say, if any facility can withstand the most powerful of hurricanes, it's probably the new Galveston National Lab on the University of Texas Medical Branch campus, which officials will dedicate Tuesday......................

maria • maria: Obama will Finally End this Immoral War

stop on by maria maria's joint. she has a happy veteran's day video up that certainly made me hope............


maria • maria: Obama will Finally End this Immoral War

mama afrika

March 4, 1932 - November 10, 2008

not much to say except i was a richer person for having heard and listened to her

Miriam Makeba, 76, Singer and Activist, Dies

By ALAN COWELL

picture: Cesare Abbate/European Pressphoto Agency
Miriam Makeba performed in a concert on Sunday night in southern Italy shortly before she died early Monday.

all i have to say is

keep your fingers (and toes) crossed

Bush Spy Revelations Anticipated When Obama Is Sworn In

By Ryan Singel

When Barack Obama takes the oath of office on January 20, Americans won't just get a new president; they might finally learn the full extent of George W. Bush's warrantless domestic wiretapping.

Since the New York Times first revealed in 2005 that the NSA was eavesdropping on citizen's overseas phone calls and e-mails, few additional details about the massive "Terrorist Surveillance Program" have emerged. That's because the Bush Administration has stonewalled, misled and denied documents to Congress, and subpoenaed the phone records of the investigative reporters.

Now privacy advocates are hopeful that a President Obama will be more forthcoming with information. But for the quickest and most honest account of Bush's illegal policies, they say don't look to the incoming president. Watch instead for the hidden army of would-be whistle-blowers who've been waiting for Inauguration Day to open the spigot on the truth.

"I'd bet there are a lot of career employees in the intelligence agencies who'll be glad to see Obama take the oath so they can finally speak out against all this illegal spying and get back to their real mission," says Caroline Fredrickson, the ACLU's Washington D.C. legislative director.............

pimpin' your food

the scream: (image credit: Adriana De Barros)

scary spud: (image credit: Sebastian Niedlich)


creative food manipulation (at dark roasted blend) stop on by and see ALL the photos. amazing!

whenever i heard the two words

executive order(s) i got the chills (of fear and despair). now there IS hope

Obama to Use Executive Orders for Immediate Impact

Transition chief: Barack Obama to use executive orders to make immediate stamp on presidency

By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER Associated Press Writer

President-elect Obama plans to use his executive powers to make an immediate impact when he takes office, perhaps reversing Bush administration policies on stem cell research and domestic drilling for oil and natural gas.

John Podesta, Obama's transition chief, said Sunday Obama is reviewing President Bush's executive orders on those issues and others as he works to undo policies enacted during eight years of Republican rule. He said the president can use such orders to move quickly on his own.

"There's a lot that the president can do using his executive authority without waiting for congressional action, and I think we'll see the president do that," Podesta said. "I think that he feels like he has a real mandate for change. We need to get off the course that the Bush administration has set."

Podesta also said Obama is working to build a diverse Cabinet. ...........

the nutmeg grater: i think we have to start thinking of

the nutmeg grater: i think we have to start thinking of

it's confirmed

there is not one drop of sanity there. not one
(in jabba the flush)

(isn't his good ol' boy king george responsible for ALL SORTS of government COVERT at that, gobbledy gook? isn't his good ol' boy king george responsible for THIS ENTIRE MESS? - well MOST of the mess???????????)

who believes him? who listens to him?

Right-wing media feeds its post-election anger

By JAMES RAINEY, On The Media
..................But many on the losing end of last week's election want to hold on to their anger. And there are those in the media -- led by the likes of Limbaugh and Hannity -- only too ready to feed that animus, along with their own ratings.

"The Obama recession is in full swing, ladies and gentlemen," Limbaugh told his radio audience of 15 million to 20 million on Thursday. "Stocks are dying, which is a precursor of things to come. This is an Obama recession. Might turn into a depression."

Apparently the tanking of the real estate market, record losses in the auto industry, and massive failures in the banking and investment industry have very little to do with our problems. The economic system is collapsing, Rush wants us to know, because it anticipates the tax increases Obama has pledged on capital gains and for the highest income earners.

But maybe that shouldn't be so surprising, because radio's Biggest Big Man also assures us that the Democrat welcomes "economic chaos" because it gives him "greater opportunity for expanded government." In a time when the nation calls out for cool leadership and rational discussion, Limbaugh stirs the caldron, a tendency he proved in a particularly grotesque way last week when he accused Obama's party of plotting a government takeover of 401(k) retirement plans.

"They're going to take your 401(k), put it in the Social Security trust fund, whatever the hell that is," Limbaugh woofed. "Trust fund, my rear end.".....................

wow

fox news (i didn't even say faux 'news' with the 'news' in quotes. please note that) GIVES IT TO JOE THE ASSHOLE but good!
(this is priceless. i am only posting it because the man is of sarevil's intelligence level AND he gets reamed a new one. otherwise, i've had it with his 'celebrity' . he really IS as smart as a bag o' dicks)

Joe the Plumber, a recipient of Welfare: now that's a wingnut.

Who is a hypocrite and a liar.

Joe "the Plumber" Wurtzelbacher is the perfect symbol for right wing hypocrisy. The guy survived on welfare, a program designed to help the needy that right wingnuts don't like, but now says Obama is not loyal to our country because he wants to take our money and give it to needy people. I guess if it wasn't for welfare he wouldn't be littering our air waves. His 15 minutes are almost up..........

i've said this out loud to my friends

and i've written it in comments on other's blogs and who knows, i may have even said it here. i don't remember and i'm too tired (and lazy) to look.

i try to be a nice person (contrary to popular belief). i'm italian and it's hard to forgive and forget. we tend to hold grudges (sure it's a stereotype BUT IT'S TRUE and you ALL know it). i'll forgive and forget a lot of what went down during this campaign. i won't forgive but i WILL forget about michele bachmann. she is just a blathering pile. she's meaningless. there are TWO I WILL NEVER FORGIVE NOR FORGET.

one is da liebs. he's a piece of steamin' shite. he all but called for the head of our president elect barack obama on a plate. i will fight with ALL of my might to make sure his career in politics is ended as soon as possible. i'm serious about that. i'm a connecticut native and it's PERSONAL

six pack, uninformed, naive, not well read, fake-folksy, homophobic, and the OTHER one is sarevil. sure, she's an empty headed, talking in tongues, anything BUT joeabstinence-spouting, neiman marcus clothes-whoring, $22,000 make-up wearing, killing wolves from helicopters, charging rape victims for rape kits, wanting to force women to bear children of incest, designer glass wearing, disease riddled soul(less) attempt at a human being BUT she was dangerous because she had an audience. what did she do with that audience (sure it was an audience of those that felt 'that way' PRIOR to sarevil BUT.....). why she whipped them up to a frenzy. a frenzy of wanting to separate america into two parts (tell me how THAT isn't terroristic or anti-american why don't cha). a frenzy of people dying to chant the "n" word. a frenzy of people who were getting serious wood thinking about forming lynch mobs. a frenzy of stirring the pot so much these people (who, again, i think were ALREADY on the edge) would have gone out with their guns and started shooting people who had obama signs on their lawns. sarevil NEVER said the 'n' word but it's in her heart. that's what she was doing. trying to separate, tear america apart. that to me is UNFORGIVABLE

Secret Service: Sarah Palin's Rhetoric Led to Spike in Death Threats Against Obama
Posted by Joshua Holland, AlterNet

The Telegraph:

Sarah Palin's attacks on Barack Obama's patriotism provoked a spike in death threats against the future president, Secret Service agents revealed during the final weeks of the campaign.

The attacks provoked a near lynch mob atmosphere at her rallies, with supporters yelling "terrorist" and "kill him" until the McCain campaign ordered her to tone down the rhetoric.

But it has now emerged that her demagogic tone may have unintentionally encouraged white supremacists to go even further.

The Secret Service warned the Obama family in mid October that they had seen a dramatic increase in the number of threats against the Democratic candidate, coinciding with Mrs Palin's attacks.

Michelle Obama, the future First Lady, was so upset that she turned to her friend and campaign adviser Valerie Jarrett and said: "Why would they try to make people hate us?"

Because they're assholes, Michelle. They're assholes who had nothing else on which to run...........

once again the original article:

Sarah Palin blamed by the US Secret Service over death threats against Barack Obama

By Tim Shipman in Washington