f**k old spice

and 'manliness' too. a real man is someone who is not uncomfortable (or as in the case of matthew chancey, AFRAID ) around women who are comfortable being who they are. strong, beautiful, smart, hard working, thoughtful, nurturing, and capable of making a decision to vote for the best candidate they deem worthy.

According to Old Spice, the Art of Manliness is Anti-Woman
Meet Matthew Chancey, the epitome of "manliness," says an Old Spice-sponsored contest.

Religious Dispatches has a piece on how an this contest created by web zine The Art of Manliness included a finalist who is a part of a movement that doesn't believe women should vote. And that finalist ended up being the winner of the Man of the Year Award.

Chancey was chosen with nine other finalists that the contest claims "epitomize the manliness that used to exist before the arrival of metrosexual pretty boys." But apparently this "manliness that used to exist" regresses all the way back to when women didn't have the vote. A member of the Christian Reconstructionist movement, a homophobic, anti-choice, anti-contraception group. In short, Chancey, his wife and nominator Doug Phillips is, according to author Kathryn Joyce,

"the staunchest promoters of the Quiverfull conviction and the patriarchy lifestyle, both of which hold that Christian couples should have as many children as God gives them, forgoing any form of family planning, as both a demonstration of their obedience and trust in God and as a militant method of demographic battle with nonbelievers."

Yes, Quiverfull, the movement that believes women's bodies aren't their own, but in fact sacrificial wombs used to build God's army. .............

it snowed here yesterday

quite a bit and i guess it's going to snow again tomorrow. it's NOT like this though



(found via boing boing)

this is EXACTLY why i love larisa

stories like THIS:


A hillybilly succubus or simply a magnet for corruption?
by Larisa Alexandrovna
My bad feeling about Sarah Palin has lately become more of a philosophical theory on the nature of good and evil. Either that or I had some really bad Chinese take-out. But I am starting to think that rather than a joke, Sarah Palin is like some sort of curse unleashed on anyone who enters her orbit and a person surrounded by an assortment of strangely dark and even criminal elements. She is also a menacing force against those whom she perceives as foes. She is like some hillbilly succubus around whom bad things tend to happen and bad people seem to gravitate. ....

So here is the latest (emphasis mine): WASILLA -- A 42-year-old Wasilla woman was arrested Thursday at her home by Alaska State Troopers with a search warrant in an undercover drug investigation. Sherry L. Johnston was charged with six felony counts of misconduct involving a controlled substance. Johnston is the mother of Levi Johnston, the Wasilla 18-year-old who received international attention in September when Gov. Sarah Palin and her husband, Todd, announced their teenage daughter was pregnant and he was the father. Bristol Palin, 18, is due on Saturday, according to a recent interview with the governor's father, Chuck Heath. Troopers served the warrant at Johnston's home at the "conclusion of an undercover narcotics investigation," said a statement issued Thursday by the troopers as part of the normal daily summary of activity around the state. Troopers charged Johnston with second-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance -- generally manufacturing or delivering drugs -- as well as fourth-degree misconduct involving controlled substances, or possession. I cannot imagine that Mrs. Johnston suddenly began to "manufacture or deliver" drugs only in the last two months. The investigators involved in the bust have even said their sting had been going on for "a while." This means that more than likely, Mrs. Johnston's alleged activities were going on during this election cycle. Think about this for a moment. Here you have Johnston, whose son has knocked up Palin's teenage daughter, allegedly manufacturing or delivering drugs (meth?) during a Presidential campaign in which Palin is running for Vice President of the United States. Palin is still at this point also governor of Alaska. Did no one think to do a background check on the family of a boy soon to marry the daughter of a governor/VP candidate?

three men

jump a 12 year old girl. they yell out, you're a prostitute, you're coming with me. remember she's TWELVE YEARS OLD.

who were the tree men? undercover galveston cops. who were they looking for? WHITE PROSTITUTES. what color was the 12 year old? black. why did they think SHE was a prostitute? because she had 'tight' shorts on. she grabbed onto a tree and yelled for her daddy. well a few days after this happened, the galveston cops came to her SCHOOL AND BUSTED HER FOR ATTACKING A COP. yes, that's right. they arrested her AT SCHOOL. they also busted her father and accused him of attacking a cop too. let me tell you, when i was 12 if three men jumped out of a van and attempted to put their hands on me, my father would have kicked the shite out of 'em. there's no ifs ands or buts about that part. i know it for a fact.

this may not seem real, but unfortunately it is.

Police Get The Wrong House In Galveston, Allegedly Assault 12-Year-Old Girl
It was a little before 8 at night when the breaker went out at Emily Milburn's home in Galveston. She was busy preparing her children for school the next day, so she asked her 12-year-old daughter, Dymond, to pop outside and turn the switch back on.

As Dymond headed toward the breaker, a blue van drove up and three men jumped out rushing toward her. One of them grabbed her saying, "You're a prostitute. You're coming with me."

Dymond grabbed onto a tree and started screaming, "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy." One of the men covered her mouth. Two of the men beat her about the face and throat.

As it turned out, the three men were plain-clothed Galveston police officers who had been called to the area regarding three white prostitutes soliciting a white man and a black drug dealer......

Police assault 12-year-old girl after mistaking her for a prostitute

........The lawsuit against the officers also alleges that the men thought Dymond, an African-American, was a hooker because of the "tight shorts" she was wearing. Police have not yet apologized for the incident.

The case has gone to trial, but the judge declared a mistrial the first day and a new trial is set for February.

"I think we'll be okay," said Anthony Griffin, Milburn's attorney. "I don't think a jury will find a 12-year-old girl guilty who's just sitting outside her house. Any 12-year-old attacked by three men and told that she's a prostitute is going to scream and yell for Daddy and hit back and do whatever she can. She's scared to death."

The officers' lawyer, William Helfand, said Milburn's father had also been arrested for attacking the officers after his daughter called for him when the police attacked her. Helfand said both would face consequences for their actions.

"It’s unfortunate that sometimes police officers have to use force against people who are using force against them. And the evidence will show that both these folks violated the law and forcefully resisted arrest," Helfand said..............

we knew this happened

i don't think we knew to what extent. i also am shocked NOTHING has been done. although i shouldn't be shocked. next to nothing has been done (by the government) to help MOST of the people effected by katrina. OUR people, OUR country. if you don't think the rate of help to people of natural disasters is directly proportionate to their wealth and/or their color, you're just kidding yourself.

Katrina's Hidden Race War

By A.C. Thompson

The way Donnell Herrington tells it, there was no warning. One second he was trudging through the heat. The next he was lying prostrate on the pavement, his life spilling out of a hole in his throat, his body racked with pain, his vision blurred and distorted.

• 
  

  
  

It was September 1, 2005, some three days after Hurricane Katrina crashed into New Orleans, and somebody had just blasted Herrington, who is African-American, with a shotgun. "I just hit the ground. I didn't even know what happened," recalls Herrington, a burly 32-year-old with a soft drawl.

The sudden eruption of gunfire horrified Herrington's companions--his cousin Marcel Alexander, then 17, and friend Chris Collins, then 18, who are also black. "I looked at Donnell and he had this big old hole in his neck," Alexander recalls. "I tried to help him up, and they started shooting again." Herrington says he was staggering to his feet when a second shotgun blast struck him from behind; the spray of lead pellets also caught Collins and Alexander. The buckshot peppered Alexander's back, arm and buttocks........

A.C. Thompson: White vigilante justice tore through New Orleans after the storm. But no official investigation has shed light on the violence.

picture: CHANDRA MCCORMICK AND KEITH CALHOUN
A vigilante shot Donnell Herrington twice shortly after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans.

Majel Barrett-Roddenberry

go where no one has gone before majel. many series, many computers, ONE VOICE


The best of Majel Barrett-Roddenberry: video roundup
by Adam McDowell

Following Majel Barrett-Roddenberry's passage to the final frontier Thursday, our prime directive is to recognize that she didn't just appear in every Star Trek series at one time or another, she served as a sort of Queen Mum of the franchise. Herewith, a roundup of four of the best Majel moments, as available on YouTube, demonstrating how she earned the title "the first lady of Star Trek."

4. As the prim-yet-snappy voice of the computer

For almost 20 years, Barrett-Roddenberry served as the voice of the computer on various Starfleet vessels, from Jean-Luc Picard's Enterprise to Kathryn Janeway's Voyager, and back a couple centuries to Jonathan Archer's original Enterprise. Hers was the original automated voice of officialdom, at its most obnoxious when at its most polite. Skip ahead to about 1:30 in the video below for best results.

i love andrew vachss

i just got an email (lou bank / ten angry pitbulls) telling me he (vachss) will be ending his 'burke' series of books. if you've not read them, i tell you you're the one missing out. burke is an unusual 'hero' or lead character type. he's a criminal. i don't mean in the jaywalking vein either. he's done some serious time and some serious stuff in his life and the family he's gathered mostly came out of the same system. other criminals and people who don't quite fit in elsewhere. they span all ages and races and genders. they ARE a family (focus on your OWN damn family, james dobson) and they share the same values and beliefs and caring. the recurring theme of the series is the protection of children. sometimes, at ANY cost. the burke books are my absolute favorite series. yes, they're violent but it wouldn't be a burke book without it. i am saddened to know they have ended. i will always have the option of re-reading them. please pick one of them up. you won't be able to stop reading ANY of them after that!

i'm not going to bother giving you the bio of andrew vachss. it's at the link below and it's more than impressive (yes, even to me). all you need to know is, he's someone i absolutely would sit down with and have a cup o' steamin' joe.

the zero

............Andrew Vachss's next novel--the eighteenth and *last* Burke novel--is shipping the end of this month, and I'm trying to get word out to all those folks who were around for the beginning, and might want to see how it all ends. I see you've linked to The Zero, so ... maybe you'll want to check out ANOTHER LIFE. Book description below, and anyone who has a question for Andrew can get it answered live on camera here:

http://www.vachss.com/anotherlife/webcast_2009.html

Another Life is the end of a journey that began with Flood, Andrew Vachss' first novel featuring career criminal Burke and his Family of Choice. "I didn't set out to write a series. Who but a terminal narcissist would?" the author says of his 1985 debut. But twenty-three years--and seventeen Burke novels--later, Andrew Vachss is finally bringing down the curtain on a series that has been described as "urban nightmares" by Publishers Weekly, and "strong, gritty, gut-bucket stuff" by the Chicago Tribune. Anyone who has felt a part of the family that includes recurring series characters Max, the Mole, Michelle, the Prof, Terry, Clarence, and Mama--characters the Seattle Post-Intelligencer says "are as sharply defined as if they were etched in steel"--will want to be there for the end of the journey, as best-selling, award- winning author Andrew Vachss ties up the loose ends, and sends his Family of Choice off to ... Another Life..........

nice!

a harddrive christmas tree

pictures from the link above

you KNOW who this is, right?

from boing boing

this asswipe (but some of my BEST friends are 'the gays')

would NOT be on my short (or long) list to even BE at my inauguration

that's for sure

(well i'd ONLY even remotely consider two reverends: the right reverend horton heat OR of course al green)

Anti-gay pastor chosen to deliver invocation at Obama's inauguration
by Nick Cargo

"I have many gay friends," he said. "I've eaten dinner in gay homes...No church has probably done more for people with AIDS than Saddleback Church. Kay and I have given millions of dollars...helping people who got AIDS through gay relationships. So they can't accuse me of homophobia--I just don't believe in the redefinition of marriage."

.........It is a grave disappointment to learn that pastor Rick Warren will give the invocation at the inauguration of Barack Obama," People For the American Way President Kathryn Kolbert said in a Wednesday statement. "Pastor Warren, while enjoying a reputation as a moderate based on his affable personality and his church's engagement on issues like AIDS in Africa, has said that the real difference between James Dobson and himself is one of tone rather than substance. He has recently compared marriage by loving and committed same-sex couples to incest and pedophilia.........

and more
Obama picks anti-gay, anti-choice pastor for inauguration ceremony
Obama has chosen Rick Warren, the right-wing Christian author and pastor of Saddleback Church, to given the invocation at his inauguration in January.

Dr. Warren, author of "The Purpose Driven Life," will deliver the invocation. He will be followed by Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, who sang "Someday We'll All Be Free" and "Respect" at a concert for Bill Clinton in 1993, but not at the inaugural ceremony.

What?! Surely Obama could have found a non-bigoted religious leader to give the invocation. Warren, despite being considered a nicer-and-friendlier "new evangelical," equates same-sex marriage with incest, says Christians who work for social justice are basically Marxists, and is staunchly anti-choice. (He recently told Steven Waldman of Beliefnet that he believes he is obligated to lobby the president to end abortion rights, but not to stop the use of torture.) .....

don't yall LOVE

how we made and are constantly making things BETTER and MORE DEMOCRATIC in iraq?

i sure do! it's heartwarming to see how we swept into the country and made EVERYTHING SAFER AND BETTER

35 Iraq Officials Held in Raids on Key Ministry
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON and TARIQ MAHER

BAGHDAD — Up to 35 officials in the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior ranking as high as general have been arrested over the past three days with some of them accused of quietly working to reconstitute Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party, according to senior security officials in Baghdad.

The arrests, confirmed by officials from the Ministries of the Interior and National Security as well as the prime minister’s office, included four generals, one of whom, Gen. Ahmed Abu Raqeef, is the ministry’s director of internal affairs. The officials also said that the arrests had come at the hand of an elite counterterrorism force that reports directly to the office of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.

The involvement of the counterterrorism unit speaks to the seriousness of the accusations, and several officials from the Ministries of the Interior and National Security said that some of those arrested were in the early stages of planning a coup./////

is he simply just insane

or is he CRIMINALLY insane?

Bush Says His Post-9/11 Actions Prevented Further Terrorism
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
President Bush took credit yesterday for "keeping America safe" from terrorists since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, arguing that his administration had prevented more bloodshed at home through aggressive policies and that such a result should outweigh any second-guessing of his methods.

As he nears his final month in office, Bush told a friendly audience at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., that he took "a deliberate and comprehensive approach" to preventing terrorism that combined military action overseas with strong defensive measures at home. .......

here are links

to download the updates to ms ie and mozilla firefox: Microsoft, Mozilla Release Browser Fixes: Download Patches Here

It's been a week of browser security holes and patches. Here are links to the official patches to fix your Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers.

keep your fingers crossed

they actually get their asses kicked to the CURB in iraq. let them chase pirates is what i say!

Panel calls for dropping Blackwater guards in Iraq
By MATTHEW LEE
WASHINGTON (AP) — A State Department advisory panel is recommending that Blackwater Worldwide be dropped as the main private security contractor for American diplomats in Iraq, The Associated Press has learned. A senior official familiar with a report commissioned by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the AP on Wednesday that the panel has called for Blackwater's contract not to be renewed when it expires next year. A decision on the recommendation will be left to the Obama administration, which will be in place when the contract comes up for renewal in the spring. Rice ordered a review of the department's use of private security firms last September after an incident in which Blackwater guards killed 17 Iraqis in Baghdad. Five guards have been indicted on manslaughter and other charges stemming from that incident. The company was not implicated. It is not clear how the State Department would replace Blackwater if the recommendation is accepted. The department relies heavily on private contractors, including Blackwater, to protect diplomats in Iraq as its own security service does not have the manpower or equipment to do so..........

is this true?

did king george's court KNOW a plane was headed straight for the pentagon and if yes, did they not warn those inside the pentagon to evacuate?
i don't believe anything other than a plane flew into it though.
i don't know if it's true or not. i had not heard this before today. if it's true this is WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY worse than i ever could have imagined

Career Army officer sues Rumsfeld, Cheney, saying no evacuation order given on 9/11
Stephen C. Webster
A career Army officer who survived the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, claims that no evacuation was ordered inside the Pentagon, despite flight controllers calling in warnings of approaching hijacked aircraft nearly 20 minutes before the building was struck.

According to a timeline of the attacks, the Federal Aviation Administration notified NORAD that American Airlines Flight 77 had been hijacked at 9:24 a.m. The Pentagon was not struck until 9:43 a.m.

On behalf of retired Army officer April Gallop, California attorney William Veale has filed a civil suit against former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney and former US Air Force General Richard Myers, who was acting chairman of the joint chiefs on 9/11. It alleges they engaged in conspiracy to facilitate the terrorist attacks by not warning those inside the Pentagon, contributing to injuries she and her two-month-old son incurred.......

i did find this: (again, i do NOT know if it is true or not)
Did Cheney Allow, Or Even Order, 9/11 Attack on Pentagon?
...........Mineta testified "during the time that the airplane was coming in to the Pentagon, there was a young man who would come in and say to the Vice President, 'the plane is 50 miles out, the plane is 30 miles out.' And when it got to 'the plane is 10 miles out," the young man also said to the Vice President, 'Do the orders still stand?' And the Vice President...said, 'Of course the orders still stand. Have you heard anything to the contrary?"

Since the airplane was not intercepted and destroyed, even though the vice president knew of it, "the orders" may have been to allow the plane to hit the Pentagon. All of this, and more, is contained in the March/April issue of "Tikkun" magazine, "a bimonthly Jewish critique of Politics, Culture & Society." The piece was authored by Dr. David Ray Griffin, a principal debunker of the accepted 9/11 dogma, and published by Rabbi Michael Lerner on grounds, "if his view is true, the position he articulates would provide adequate grounds for impeachment of the president..."..............

not only is this scary

it's NOT right

(oh i think it's a good idea to take drunks off of the road, i do NOT think it's a good idea to HAVE MILITARY CHECK POINTS IN THE UNITED STATES IN TIMES OF PEACE ON CIVILIAN LAND. what would YOU do if you were stopped by a marine police officer on YOUR local highway? i would personally freak out)

if you think this is a good idea, i don't want you on my christmas card list
Domestic Militarization Comes to San Bernardino County

Update: Marine “Military Presence” Confirmed in San Bernardino County
Marine Corps Air and Ground Combat Center (MCAGCC) Provost Marshal (head of a unit of military police) and the local California Highway Patrol office will begin working together 12/12 — and through the holiday season — in a joint effort to reduce accidents and drinking and driving. The combined mutual cooperation between the Marine Corps Military Police and State enforcement officers will begin somewhere along Highway 62. The CHP will set up DUI roadblocks with the presence of Military Police. A violation of the Posse Comitatus Act.............

..........Gary Daigneault discussed the ramifications of this joint effort today on his 107.7 F.M. Talk Back show. Mr. Daigneault and his callers seemed to be very concerned. On its face, one may think this is a good idea. But it’s not. I agree with Mr. Daigneault and his callers. Most of which seemed to think this is a very bad idea. Mr. Daigneault contacted a Constitutional Law expert, and the attorney informed him this is absolutely unconstitutional. It’s NOT permitted under the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, 8 U.S.C. § 1385. It’s my understanding that the Constitutional Law expert said CHP officers could be arrested out there working with the Military Police because it’s a “felony.”..................

obama gets down to some

important BID-NEZ
Obama takes questions from grade schoolers
Visits students after announcing education secretary choice Arne Duncan
-ap

..........The president-elect talked about how his daughters, 10-year-old Malia and 7-year-old Sasha, will get a dog when they make the move to the White House next month.
"They've been asking for a dog for years now," he said.
Obama said the girls would need to take care of their pet. And that didn't just mean feeding and walking the dog.

"You know, if they do their business, if they've got some poop — you got to make sure that you're not just leaving it there," Obama said............

priceless

from xkcd

A webcomic of romance,
sarcasm, math, and language.

found via boing boing

he still WILL NOT

SHUT THE F**K UP yup pat boone is at it AGAIN (and the first link in the story below brings you to pat's article which is indeed really entitled 'i love gays' - i think he forgot to put the word "THE" in front of gays though)

Some of Pat Boone's best dead friends are gay!
John Aravosis (DC)

What a dweeb.
Pat Boone has penned a column entitled "I love gays," after he wrote an earlier column comparing those who opposes Prop 8 in California to the terrorists who murdered hundreds in Mumbai a few weeks back. Pat says that the "politically correct" crowd shouldn't get so upset that he compared civil rights activists, and regular moms and dads, to terrorists because he didn't compare us to them at all! Then he did it again:

I drew a comparison between the violence that killed almost 200 innocent people in Mumbai, perpetrated by jihadists trained to hate and kill indiscriminately, and the turbulent, abusive mob events in our streets and in front of our churches. If you read the column, you'll see that I carefully stated. "Oh, I know the homosexual 'rights' demonstrations haven't reached the same level of violence, but I'm referring to the anger, the vehemence, the total disregard for law and order and the supposed rights of their fellow citizens. I'm referring to the intolerance, the hate seething in the words, faces, and actions of those who didn't get their way in a democratic election, those who proclaim loudly that they will get their way, no matter what the electorate wants!"

..........

it's not like this is new news

or surprising. we knew about this for a long time. not too very many voices crying out for justice though. not too many voices demanding king george and his good ol' whiteboy posse be held accountable not only for this but for the deaths of 4,209 american men and women in iraq and countless iraqi deaths (i've read figures from 128,000 to over 600,000). of course i'm not even mentioning the wounded, mentally and physicially (of ours AND theirs). nor the trickle down effect on the lives of effected families (theirs AND ours). nor the cost of caring for OUR returning troops. yeah, i'm just about done talking FOR NOW


Revealed: Unpublished Fed Document Highlights Costly Rebuilding Blunders in Iraq
Posted by dday, Hullabaloo
T. Christian Miller wrote a definitive work a couple years ago called Blood Money: Wasted Billions, Lost Lives, and Corporate Greed in Iraq. Late last week, Miller, who used to work for the LA Times and now writes for the online investigative unit Pro Publica got his eye on an unpublished document detailing the history of the failed reconstruction project in Iraq, and the only thing surprising about it is that the Pentagon allowed the Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, Stuart Bowen, to write it up at all. The blinding incompetence and ignorance, the sustained money funnel into the hands of contractors, and the ideological warfare that led to over $100 billion in waste and fraud, all to simply replicate what we spent even more billions destroying without improving the basic lives of Iraqis, is just astounding. You can pull out anecdote after anecdote that will absolutely floor you.

It also concludes that when the reconstruction began to lag — particularly in the critical area of rebuilding the Iraqi police and army — the Pentagon simply put out inflated measures of progress to cover up the failures............

this is GRAND!

Ecogeek Deathmatch: Ed Begley Jr. v. Bill Nye, Science Guy
By Kiera Butler

News: Which Hollywood do-gooder has the greener crib? A no-holds-barred fight to the furnished.

Photos: Nye—John M. Heller/Getty Images; Begley—BCII

November/December 2008 Issue

Ed Begley Jr.'s solar-powered, rainwater-recycling house was the greenest in his Studio City neighborhood—until his friend Bill Nye, the erstwhile science guy, vowed to outdo him. A rundown of the competition:...........

this is what an asshole looks like

and sounds like. as i always say; fair and balanced MY BIG FAT ASS



After Doocy said Caroline Kennedy "is a constitutional lawyer," Kilmeade asked: "Is that American Constitution?"
On the December 16 edition of Fox & Friends, co-host Steve Doocy said of Caroline Kennedy: "[I]t sounds like she did call up and speak to the governor of the Empire State of New York, David Paterson, within the last week or so, to essentially tell him, OK, these are my qualifications. And what she said was that she's been involved in charity work, education, and she is a constitutional lawyer." Moments later, co-host Brian Kilmeade asked: "Is that American Constitution?" Doocy responded, "I'm hoping. Sure -- runs in the family."

Kennedy has a law degree from Columbia Law School and has co-written two books about the U.S. Constitution...........

if you use ms ie this is a MUST read

Microsoft Issues Emergency Security Patch For IE
Microsoft is issuing an emergency patch for a critical Internet Explorer flaw.
JR Raphael, PC World
PC World
Microsoft will issue an emergency security patch Wednesday for all versions of Internet Explorer. The patch is considered a critical fix for the security flaw currently plaguing the IE browser. So far, more than 2 million computers are believed to have been infected.

An advance notification of the patch published Tuesday describes it as protection for a "remote code execution" vulnerability. The move follows Microsoft's security advisory posted last Wednesday and updated Monday explaining the vulnerability and suggesting temporary "workarounds" for protection.

The flaw can be used to let attackers steal personal data such as passwords if a user visits a compromised Web site, of which at least 10,000 are thought to already exist. Thus far, the vulnerability has been used primarily for grabbing gaming passwords for black market sales. The hole could, however, potentially also be used to steal more sensitive information such as banking passwords and other private information. ..........

i linked you up to the animations earlier today

well wired has links to bush shoe toss games (yeah, gameS, more than ONE)

hmmmm

'meddling' by our interior department? sort of hard to believe, no? (that my dears is called sarcasm)

let's kill ALL of our flora and fauna. why not? the rapture is right around the corner (and i'm sort of believing that now. NOT because of a god or anything but because of HUMAN BEINGS that are causing our earth to die)

Report Finds Meddling in Interior Dept. Actions
By CHARLIE SAVAGE
WASHINGTON — The inspector general of the Interior Department has found that agency officials often interfered with scientific work in order to limit protections for species at risk of becoming extinct, reviving attention to years of disputes over the Bush administration’s science policies.In a report delivered to Congress on Monday, the inspector general, Earl E. Devaney, found serious flaws in the process that led to 15 decisions related to policies on endangered species.

The report suggested that at least some of those decisions might need to be revisited under the Obama administration.

Among the more significant decisions was one reducing the number of streams that would be designated as critical habitat for the endangered bull trout and protected from commercial use. That rule is already the subject of a lawsuit by environmentalists. .....

this made me

wicked uncomfortable BUT I STILL LOVED IT

oh and by the way, it is NSFW



(found via feministing)

you gotta hop on over to boing boing

to see the iraqi shoe tosser gifs
(i have NO idea how to post a working gif on blogger. i'm too lazy to look into it right now. just go on over to boing boing. it's worth it any damn way)

and i saw this on andy thibault's cool justice report

Yankees Sign Iraqi Hurler
Shoe-Throwing
Right-Hander
Impresses Scouts

By ANDY BOROWITZ
www.borowitzreport.com

In their latest bid to beef up their pitching rotation for the 2009 season, the New York Yankees today signed Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zeidi to a three-year deal worth $32 million.

The right-handed al-Zeidi, 28, impressed the Yankee scouts with his performance in Baghdad yesterday when he threw both of his shoes at President George W. Bush...............

'splain this to me lucy

how can we torture if we DON'T torture?

hmmmmmmmmm

oh and please note how the united states prosecuted japanese soldiers for using the very same method(s) the united states is using at gitmo. another hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Cheney admits authorizing detainee's torture
David Edwards and Stephen C. Webster
Outgoing VP says Guantanamo prison should stay open until end of terror war, but has no idea when that might be.
Monday, outgoing Vice President Dick Cheney made a startling statement on a nation-wide, televised broadcast.

When asked by ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl whether he approved of interrogation tactics used against a so-called "high value prisoner" at the controversial Guantanamo Bay prison, Mr. Cheney, in a break from his history of being press-shy, admitted to giving official sanctioning of torture.

"I supported it," he said regarding the practice known as "water-boarding," a form of simulated drowning. After World War II, Japanese soldiers were tried and convicted of war crimes in US courts for water-boarding, a practice which the outgoing Bush administration attempted to enshrine in policy............

a teeny tiny victory

but one i'll take and one i'm happy about. i don't think there is ANYTHING patriotic about the patriot act (personally)

(by the way, did you know EVERYONE who works for certain insurance companies or financial institutions as well as MOST of their agents {that sell certain products} MUST take a stupid-ass 'class' each year BECAUSE OF THE PATRIOT ACT? well no you didn't did you! the reason for that is something or other about funnelling money into terrorist countries or organizations. fine you say to yourselves. we should not be doing such things. oh, i agree with you 100% BUT MOST INSURANCE COMPANIES AND FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS had policies in place to prevent THAT AND MUCH MORE PRIOR AND IN SPITE OF the PATRIOT ACT)


Court sides with ACLU, strikes down Patriot Act gag provision
ACLU victorious as federal court declares Patriot Act provision a violation of the First Amendment

A federal appeals court ruling late Monday is the cause célèbre of the American Civil Liberties Union, as another provision of the Bush administration's Patriot Act falls to the judicial system.

Until the ruling, recipients of so-called "national security letters" were legally forbidden from speaking out. The letters, usually a demand for documents, or a notice that private records had been searched by government authorities, were criticized as a cover-all for FBI abuses.

recipients to initiate judicial review of gag orders, holding that the government has the burden to go to court and justify silencing "The appeals court invalidated parts of the statute that wrongly placed the burden on NSLNSL recipients," said the ACLU in a release.......

it doesn't look real

but the green pitviper is (from the bbc)

how many times do i have to say this?

the UNITED STATES DOES NOT TORTURE (except when we DO torture, lie about it and destroy the evidence)

i want justice and i want punishment for the guilty BUT i also want my country and it's laws back. AND I WANT THEM NOW

CIA Torture Tapes Destroyed After Watchdog Concluded Methods Illegal
By Jason Leopold
(The Intelligence Daily) -- The CIA destroyed videotapes showing its agents subjecting high-level al-Qaeda detainees to waterboarding after the agency's inspector general issued a classified report in the spring of 2004 that concluded the interrogation methods used on the prisoners "appeared to constitute cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment, as defined by the International Convention Against Torture."

Details about the videotapes were revealed in a February 2003 letter released in January by Congresswoman Jane Harman D-California. Harman was the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee at the time she wrote the letter to the CIA advising the agency against destroying the videotapes. Prior to writing the letter to then CIA General Counsel Scott Muller, Harman had been briefed about the CIA's interrogation methods against so-called high-level detainees. The CIA declassified Harman's letter at the congresswoman's request..........

this is ugly

not shocking because i knew it was happening. the sad part is the military seems to be taking ANYONE who signs on these days. i do NOT want nazis given guns (well, i don't want them given ANYTHING). i don't want nazis given a green light to kill. that is NOT my america and i sure as hell hope it's NOT YOUR america either

[Shawn Stuart, Iraq War veteran, at a 2006 neo-Nazi rally in Olympia, WA.]

Two years ago, the Southern Poverty Law Center ran a devastating report describing the infiltration of neo-Nazis into the ranks of the American military. The Pentagon's official response was steadfast denial of the problem.

The SPLC's David Holthouse just published a follow-up report, and found, predictably, that the problem is getting worse as the conflict in Iraq drags on:

A new FBI report confirms that white supremacists are infiltrating the military for several reasons. According to the unclassified FBI Intelligence Assessment, "White Supremacist Recruitment of Military Personnel Since 9/11," which was released to law enforcement agencies nationwide: "Sensitive and reliable source reporting indicates supremacist leaders are encouraging followers who lack documented histories of neo-Nazi activity and overt racist insignia such as tattoos to infiltrate the military as 'ghost skins,' in order to recruit and receive training for the benefit of the extremist movement."...............

once again our king george

does NOT disappoint. he and big big big bid-nez (i.e. the good ol' whiteboy network) are suckling off each other. we? well we're not getting fed at all

not only are the fat cats getting fatter, but rome is burning. on top of ALL OF THAT, we don't know how this money is being spent OR where it went

Executive Pay Limits May Prove Toothless
Loophole in Bailout Provision Leaves Enforcement in Doubt
By Amit R. Paley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Congress wanted to guarantee that the $700 billion financial bailout would limit the eye-popping pay of Wall Street executives, so lawmakers included a mechanism for reviewing executive compensation and penalizing firms that break the rules.

But at the last minute, the Bush administration insisted on a one-sentence change to the provision, congressional aides said. The change stipulated that the penalty would apply only to firms that received bailout funds by selling troubled assets to the government in an auction, which was the way the Treasury Department had said it planned to use the money.

Now, however, the small change looks more like a giant loophole, according to lawmakers and legal experts. In a reversal, the Bush administration has not used auctions for any of the $335 billion committed so far from the rescue package, nor does it plan to use them in the future. Lawmakers and legal experts say the change has effectively repealed the only enforcement mechanism in the law dealing with lavish pay for top executives. ........

wow

although i wouldn't throw anything at him (EXCEPT MY VERY LOUD VOICE) these are MY sentiments exactly.



stephen over at drinking liberally in new milford hooks us up with the above vid. WOW

(the video doesn't work for me on my site, but it sure does on stephen's. stop on by his place)

story link Iraqi Journalist Throws Shoes at Bush

and here's an update from wapo

Shoe-Throwing Mars Bush's Baghdad Trip
President Defends War in Surprise Farewell Visit Before Ducking an Iraqi Journalist's Rejoinder
By Sudarsan Raghavan and Dan Eggen
Washington Post Foreign Service
BAGHDAD, Dec. 15 -- Arriving here on Sunday for a surprise farewell visit, President Bush staunchly defended a war that has taken far more time, money and lives than anticipated, but he received a taste of local resentment toward his policies when an Iraqi journalist hurled two shoes at him at a news conference......

.............Just after Bush finished his remarks and said "Thank you" in Arabic, an Iraqi journalist took off his shoes and threw them at Bush, one after the other.

Throwing a shoe at someone is considered the worst possible insult in Iraq and is meant to show extreme disrespect and contempt. When U.S. forces helped topple a statue of Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein after rolling into Baghdad in April 2003, jubilant Iraqis beat the statue's face with their shoes. .............



another update
Iraqi who threw shoes covered U.S. bombing of Shiite area
By Adam Ashton and Mohammed al Dulaimy | McClatchy Newspapers

"Any action taken against Muntathar will remind us of the actions and behaviors taken by the reign of the dictator and the violence, the random arrests, the mass graves and confiscations of freedom from the people," the board of Baghdadiyah said.

Friends said Zaidi covered the U.S. bombing of Baghdad's Sadr City area earlier this year and had been "emotionally influenced" by the destruction he'd seen. They also said he'd been kidnapped in 2007 and held for three days by Shiite Muslim gunmen.

here are 2 of 20

strange sculptures from village of joy (some of them are VERY disturbing indeed)
pic: chasing one another tokyo (Image credits: tanakawho)
pic: passing through the wall paris (Image credits: Chaymation)

ok this dude is nuts

and of course you're NEVER going to find a parent these days that would allow that to be done with their kid

(found via dark roasted blend)

bringing them freedom, justice and

democracy. oh, as only WE can (read: NOT at all)

as usual, the people WE leave in charge (not just in afghanistan but we've done it ALL over the world) are corrupt thugs (and in some instances way worse than thugs)


The Other Front
By Sarah Chayes

...................He had put his finger on the heart of the problem. We and our friends in Kandahar are thunderstruck at recent suggestions that the solution to the hair-raising situation in this country must include a political settlement with "relevant parties" -- read, the Taliban. Negotiating with them wouldn't solve Afghanistan's problems; it would only exacerbate them. Ask any Afghan what's really needed, what would render the Taliban irrelevant, and they'll tell you: improving the behavior of the officials whom the United States and its allies ushered into power after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. ...........

..........Instead, we gave power back to corrupt gunslingers who had been repudiated years before. If they helped us chase al-Qaeda, we didn't look too hard at their governing style. Often we helped them monopolize the new opportunities for gain. A friend of mine, one of the beneficiaries, was astounded at the blank check. "What are we warlords doing still in power?" police precinct captain Mahmad Anwar asked me in 2002. "I vowed on the Holy Koran that I would fight the Taliban in order to bring an educated, competent government to Afghanistan. And now people like me are running the place?" I had to laugh at his candor............

i read about the other murder

of marcelo lucero on long island about a month ago. he was killed because his skin was a bit more brown than his murderers

now we have another new york murder of an ecuadorian, jose o. sucuzhanay. mr sucuzhanay and his brother were leaving a bar early one morning last week. they had their arms around each other. what happened? well some 'men' (and i use the term VERY loosely) hopped out of an suv with baseball bats and a bottle. they ended up beating mr sucuzhanay so badly, he died. this is in new york. brooklyn. why did they beat him? only they know (they've not only NOT been caught, they've not been identified) BUT they shouted anti-gay and anti-hispanic words


i don't want those kinds of people living in MY america

Brooklyn Man Dies From Beating
By JACK HEALY
An Ecuadorean immigrant who was brutally beaten with a bottle and baseball bat last week by men said to be shouting anti-gay and anti-Hispanic slurs has died, a family spokesman said on Saturday night
The victim, Jose O. Sucuzhanay, died on Friday night at Elmhurst Hospital Center as his mother was traveling from Ecuador to see him one last time, said the family spokesman, Francisco Moya. Mr. Sucuzhanay’s family had kept him on life support in anticipation of his mother’s arrival, but on Friday, his heart stopped.

In a statement on Saturday night, Mr. Sucuzhanay’s brother Diego said he was “at a loss beyond words” at his brother’s death, which the police are investigating as a hate crime.

The police were still looking for Mr. Sucuzhanay’s assailants, but said that detectives had been investigating the attack as homicide, a law enforcement official said. ......