i'm posting this

because my debit card (atm) number has been STOLEN for the second time in a month. yes, that's right. TWICE in a few weeks. i'm pissed. i only go to legit online sites and legit bank machines (i wouldn't use an atm in a convenience store or the like) and pay my bills online at legit sites. so how the eff are they doing it? ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Local man finds card skimmer on ATM

Posted by Joel Johnson,

A Consumerist reader found a card skimmer on a WaMu ATM. He ripped it off and reported it to the police and the bank. The police said they'd never actually seen one in real life.

I always check for card skimmers at the ATM by smashing the front repeatedly with a sledgehammer, starting with the camera.........

(please click on the story link to read the comments. they're worth it)

to ponder..................

What you should be afraid of instead of terrorists

Posted by Cory Doctorow

Are you an American who worries about terrorism? Stop. If you want to worry about something, here's John Goekler's Counterpunch article on the statistically likely killers that you need to fear: According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, between 310,000 and 580,000 of us will commit suicide by cigarette this year. Another 260,000 to 470,000 will go in the ground due to poor diet and sedentary lifestyle. And some 85,000 of us will drink to our own departure.

After the person in the mirror, the next most dangerous individual we're ever likely to encounter is one in a white coat. Something like 200,000 of us will experience "cessation of life" due to medical errors - botched procedures, mis-prescribed drugs and "nosocomial infections". (The really nasty ones you get from treatment in a hospital or healthcare service unit.)......................

way to go vermont!

(of course my state already DID IT!)
and remember what i ALWAYS say

'if you don't like gay marriage, DON'T EFFING MARRY A GAY'


Vermont legalizes gay marriage with veto override
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Vermont has become the fourth state to legalize gay marriage — and the first to do so with a legislature's vote.

The Legislature voted Tuesday to override Gov. Jim Douglas' veto of a bill allowing gays and lesbians to marry. The vote was 23-5 to override in the state Senate and 100-49 to override in the House. Under Vermont law, two-thirds of each chamber had to vote for override.

The vote came nine years after Vermont adopted its first-in-the-nation civil unions law.

It's now the fourth state to permit same-sex marriage. Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa are the others. Their approval of gay marriage came from the courts.....................

watch it!

one of the bumper stickers on my car says

focus on your OWN damn family.

of course i believe that with my whole heart and soul. i believe a lot of these asswipes are closet perverts any way. hmmmmmmmm where would i get the idea to think something along THOSE lines i wonder?

Police: Focus on the Family Bible narrator tried to lure teen for sex
Stephen C. Webster

A Colorado man who works for Evangelical group Focus on the Family has been arrested after he solicited sex online from an investigator posing as a teenage girl, police have said.

"Juan Alberto Ovalle, 42, thought he was corresponding with a girl under the age of 15, but instead it was undercover officers with the Jefferson County district attorney's office, according to court documents," reported the Denver Post.

"...Ovalle was arrested on April 3rd when he drove to an undisclosed location in Lakewood to meet the person he believed to be a teen for sexual purposes," reported Colorado's News Channel 13................

this isn't comforting at all

did you know our colleges and universities (especially the 'historically black' ones) are BREEDING GROUNDS FOR TERRORISTS? i sure didn't. dang! what you'll learn from conservative right wing closed mined evil souled organizations

Fusion center declares nation's oldest universities possible terror threat
Stephen C. Webster
A newly leaked terrorism assessment from a law enforcement fusion center in Virginia highlights US universities as potential "radicalization nodes" for terrorists.

RAW STORY has published the entirety of the 215 page report, available here in PDF format.

From page 17:

A wide variety of terror or extremist groups have links to [a highlighted area of Virginia]. This area not only has a diverse population due to the strong military presence, but it is also the site of several universities.

While most of these universities are considered urban, two are designated as a Historically Black Colleges and Universities, while Regent University is a private, evangelical Christian institution. While the majority of individuals associated with educational institutions do not engage in activities of interest to the VFC, it is important to note that University-based students groups are recognized as a radicalization node for almost every type of extremist group.

Though the report singles out "historically black colleges" early on, it also contains an extensive list of peaceful American and International activist groups from nearly all cross-sections of political engagement, placing them side-by-side with groups that have long been known for resorting to violence.
.......................

inhuman

here is the pdf version of the red cross report

and here's mark danner's

article (please click to read his entire piece)

The Red Cross Torture Report: What It Means

By Mark Danner

ICRC Report on the Treatment of Fourteen "High Value Detainees" in CIA Custody

by the International Committee of the Red Cross

43 pp., February 2007

Download the text of the ICRC Report on the Treatment of Fourteen "High Value Detainees" in CIA Custody by The International Committee of the Red Cross, along with the cover letter that accompanied it when it was transmitted to the US government in February 2007. This version, reset by The New York Review, exactly reproduces the original including typographical errors and some omitted words.

When we get people who are more concerned about reading the rights to an Al Qaeda terrorist than they are with protecting the United States against people who are absolutely committed to do anything they can to kill Americans, then I worry.... These are evil people. And we're not going to win this fight by turning the other cheek...............

i'm telling y'all

this man is one o' my new favorites (thanks pandora for turning me on to him)

because we lie

and when we're NOT lying, we're just asking for it anyway. you know, we dress provocatively (and even if we're in a burka, we're STILL asking for it)

Actual Rape Victim Jailed for “False Report”

I just came across this story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (h/t), and I am absolutely fuming. A woman was raped at gunpoint while working for a convenience store, and reported her rape — as, you know, cops, the government, and well-meaning people are always encouraging her and other rape victims to do. Her rape was even “real” rape — since, you know, it was at gunpoint and committed by a total stranger and therefore lacking most sufficient “gray areas.”

But still, the police did not believe the victim. Worse, they didn’t just laugh at her, as many other victims report happening to them. They didn’t ask her if she really deserved it for X reason, or if she had sex with the gunman consensually and then just regretted it later. They didn’t ask her if she really wanted to press charges, because hey, this could ruin this man’s life, you know! All of these are outcomes far more than bad enough, and which still happen far too often, but didn’t happen here.

Instead, they accused her of a false report and put her in jail.

While she was in jail, her rapist went out and raped more women, and was eventually caught. ............

douchebaggery!

because this is important

for us ALL to witness
(and my thoughts and prayers go out to all of us)

no politics. no preaching. just sorrow

Doleful Arrivals Open to Public
18-Year Media Ban on War Casualties' Homecomings Lifted at Dover Air Force Base

By Christian Davenport

Washington Post Staff Writer

The wind can whip cold across the tarmac at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, freezing fingers that hold the flag-draped metal transfer case in which lie the remains of a fellow service member. You do not loosen your grip. You do not shuffle your feet. You do not grimace.

If you have to yawn, you do it through your nose. You swallow your coughs and sneezes, let itches go unscratched. Keep your mouth closed, eyes straight and the blinking to an absolute minimum.

Those are the rules.

Those are the rules when it's 4 a.m. and it's dark and there's no one around.

Those were the rules last night when the ritual of welcoming home the fallen was open to the public for the first time since President George H.W. Bush instituted a ban on news coverage in 1991.................

picture: The remains of Air Force Staff Sgt. Phillip A. Myers arrive at Dover Air Force Base. He was the first slain service member welcomed home publicly since 1991. (By Nikki Kahn -- The Washington Post)

i like this

and some of 'em are wicked good ideas

from photo jojo


12 alternative uses for your camera-12 ways to use your camera as a tool

(pic from the photo jojo site)

there's a video at the link below

Outcry in Pakistan after video of a 17-year-old girl's flogging by the Taliban is shown on TV

• Declan Walsh in Islamabad
• The Guardian, Saturday 4 April 2009
• Article history

The Pakistani government has ordered an inquiry into the flogging of a 17-year-old woman by Taliban militants in the troubled Swat valley, after public outrage triggered by shocking video footage of the punishment.

The images, played yesterday on private television channels, show a burka-clad woman being pinned to the ground by two men while a third whips her backside 34 times. The woman is seen screaming and begging for mercy as a crowd of largely silent men look on. She is accused of having had an illegal sexual relationship, according to local law. Her brother is among those restraining her.

President Asif Ali Zardari led a wave of public condemnation, and ordered the arrest of the perpetrators. Prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani termed it "shocking" and called for an immediate inquiry. At the supreme court, the newly reinstated chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, summoned officials to a hearing scheduled for Monday to investigate the incident.

"Our constitution allows no space for such public brutality, and our civilisation and culture have no tolerance for it either," said Sherry Rehman, a former information minister...........

(ht: americablog)

not just women are killed for 'honor'

it seems

yup, we did a darn good job of bringing freedom and justice to iraq all right (although, if given a chance i think many here in america would kill the 'fags' in their families too. so much for love and tolerance and acceptance and doing unto others)............ it really frightens me the sort of god these people (these meaning anyone who is afraid of gays) believe in. a vengeful, ugly, ruthless and violent one at that

Gays killed in Baghdad as clerics urge clampdown

by Reuters North American News Service

Gays killed in Baghdad as clerics urge clampdown

Wisam Mohammed and Khalid al-Ansary
Reuters North American News Service

BAGHDAD, April 4 (Reuters) - Two gay men were killed in Baghdad's Sadr City slum, a local official said on Saturday, and police said they had found the bodies of four more after clerics urged a crackdown on a perceived spread of homosexuality.

Homosexuality is prohibited almost everywhere in the Middle East, but conditions have become especially dangerous for gays and lesbians in Iraq since the rise of religious militias after U.S.-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein six years ago.

"Two young men were killed on Thursday. They were sexual deviants. Their tribes killed them to restore their family honour," a Sadr City official who declined to be named said......

this is scary and i'm not quite sure

i want to visit the phoenix area at all (although i'd LOVE to see the american southwest).

shame on the dishonest and vengeful ones (i don't believe they are ALL like that by any means)


Phoenix cops raid the home of an online critic
J.D. Tuccille

Perhaps the best publicity a critic of the powers-that-be can ever get for his cause is to be the target of over-the-top official retaliation. That automatically validates what the critic is saying while at the same time massively expanding the audience for his message. So, in an odd way, Jeff Pataky owes a "thank you" to the Phoenix Police Department for raiding his home and hauling away computers and other material related to a Website and blog he maintains that focus attention on misdeeds involving the Phoenix PD.

Pataky's crusade against Phoenix cops apparently started as a personal vendetta in response to a since-dropped harassment prosecution resulting from a bitter divorce. Since then, though, his project has turned into a public service and he has apparently cultivated informants inside the department and broken stories about official misconduct. He told Carlos Miller of the Photography is Not a Crime blog, “We have about 50 to 100 retired and active cops who provide us information.”............

Phoenix police raid home of blogger whose writing is highly critical of them

Carlos Miller
In what should send a frightening chill down the spine of every blogger, writer, journalist and First Amendment advocate in the United States, Phoenix police raided the home of a blogger who has been highly critical of the department.

Jeff Pataky, who runs Bad Phoenix Cops, said the officers confiscated three computers, routers, modems, hard drives, memory cards and everything necessary to continue blogging.

The 41-year-old software engineer said they also confiscated numerous personal files and documents relating to a pending lawsuit he has against the department alleging harassment - which he says makes it obvious the raid was an act of retaliation.

Maricopa County Judge Gary Donahoe signed the search warrant that allowed at least ten cops to raid his home in North Phoenix on March 12 while handcuffing his female roommate for three hours as they tore the place apart.................

bad phoenix cops

and the blog bad phoenix cops

this man feared

'the obama administration would ban guns'.

if only the obama administration (or any other one) WOULD ban ALL guns (except for law enforcement and the military). but it will not happen. the lunatic fringe would have you think so, but it won't.

to the family and friends of the officers and to the city of pittsburgh, i am so very sorry. my thoughts and prayers are with you
3 Pittsburgh Officers Slain

By Ramit Plushnick-Masti and Dan Nephin

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH, April 4 -- A gunman wearing a bulletproof vest and "lying in wait" opened fire on officers responding to a domestic disturbance call Saturday, killing three of them and turning a quiet Pittsburgh street into a battlefield, police said.

Police Chief Nate Harper said the motive for the shooting was unclear, but friends of the gunman said that he recently had been upset about losing his job and feared that the Obama administration was poised to ban guns.

Richard Poplawski, 23, met officers at the doorway and shot two of them in the head immediately, Harper said. A third officer who tried to help the two was then killed.........

...........The three slain officers were Eric Kelly, Stephen Mayhle and Paul Sciullo III. Kelly had been on the force for 14 years, Mayhle and Sciullo for two years each. Another officer, Timothy McManaway, was shot in the hand, and a fifth broke his leg on a fence........

because there is NO science

not for a 19 year old, a 90 year old OR a 9 year old. there's NO science, only 'intelligent' design. that rules out god creating ANYTHING other than christian women and christian men who think of themselves as ONLY a boy or ONLY a grrrl.

fuck you too. the kid ("z") was only presenting REAL AND VALID EVIDENCE he collected. just because the school won't share it like they shared all the others, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

i'd like to extend a giant shout out to 'Z'

from boing boing


Nine year old's survey project excluded from school because he learned some people don't think of themselves as male or female

Posted by Cory Doctorow

A reader writes, "TheFourthVine's nine year old nephew, Z, wrote a survey that she encouraged her friends to take. However, when his mother went to the school's open house to take a photo of the end result, she couldn't as out of all the science projects Z hadn't been shown."

Except she couldn't. Because my nephew's project, alone among all of them, was not displayed. After much back and forth with various people, my sister learned that apparently some people were uncomfortable with his conclusions. Specifically the part where he said that what he really learned from this project was that some people don't want to be called boys or girls, and that those people need an "other" option. (And also that they tend to prefer blue to green.)

Follow up on Z's Science Project

i rail against ultra muslims who mistreat women

so i have no problem railing against ultra jews who MAKE WOMEN DISAPPEAR because women aren't people. they're baby making machines who shouldn't be allowed to leave home. fuck them and fuck ANY one singly or in groups who mistreat women or think women are worth even one iota less than men.

i had NO idea. really i didn't.

Israeli papers brush women out of cabinet
Rachel Shabi in Tel Aviv

Two female ministers within a 30-strong cabinet may not sound like such a big deal to most. However, it was two women too many for Israeli ultra-orthodox newspapers, so they simply airbrushed the offending female figures out of photographs of Binyamin Netanyahu's new cabinet, on the grounds that printing pictures of women is "immodest".

Limor Livnat and Sofa Landver, the two apparently inappropriate ministers, simply "disappeared" from a photograph of the new cabinet in the weekly newspaper Shaa Tova, with black holes visible in the spaces where they had been standing. Meanwhile, in the newspaper Yated Neeman, male cabinet members were blown up and superimposed on to the images of the two female ministers in the frame.

Shaa Tova told the Israeli daily newspaper Maariv: "Anyone who is acquainted with the ultra-orthodox press knows that from time immemorial, ultra-orthodox newspapers avoid publishing pictures of women.".......

Papers alter Israel cabinet photo

photo: The original image, above, was digitally altered by two ultra-Orthodox Jewish newspapers. Yated Neeman daily newspaper replaced the women with two men in the lower image. (bbc)

what a giant asshole

oscar de la renta is. if i wore designer clothing and i owned any of his shite, I'D EFFING BURN IT. normally i don't talk such trivia as what michelle obama is wearing, but i sure couldn't believe this dipshite had the NERVE to say what he said. hey mr designer listen.......

#1) the black and white outfit she had on while hangin' wit da queen was smokin'. no ifs ands or buts about it. she AND her outfit were bangin
#2) methinks he doth protest too too too much
#3) meaning, i think i smell fear AND jealousy on oskie's breath


Oscar de la Renta has tough words for Michelle Obama

(CNN) – Michelle Obama's fashion choices at the G20 summit have drawn widespread praise, but at least one famous designer thinks the fist lady made a major faux pas in her wardrobe choice for a private audience with Queen Elizabeth II.

"You don't…go to Buckingham Palace in a sweater," Oscar de la Renta told Woman's Wear Daily regarding Mrs. Obama's decision to wear a cardigan over an Isabel Toledo-designed dress for the private meeting.

De la Renta also said the first lady — who often sports relatively affordable American brands — should broaden her wardrobe and seize an opportunity to spur the flailing fashion industry.

“American fashion right now is struggling,” he said. “I think I understand what [Obama and her advisers] are doing, but I don’t think that is the right message at this particular point."........

more on the giant flush

Limbaugh: Obama May Give Gordon Brown "Anal Poisoning"

Jason Linkins

Wow. Whatever bet L.A. Times columnist Andrew Klavan thought he was making by daring people to listen to Rush Limbaugh and find one instance of the talk radio host saying a "single racist, hateful or stupid word" was lost today in dramatic fashion.

Limbaugh went waaaaaay over the top in insulting Gordon Brown with a mental image that one must work at to un-think about, warning that if the British Prime Minister keeps "slobbering" over President Barack Obama, he'll "come down with anal poisoning and may die from it."................

(go to the link above because mr linkins has the audio clip)

get the F**K out of town!

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(another) one of 'em is effing nuts and one is effing funny

i took the pledge

stop by the link below to show your tweet support and your facebook support as well



spread the word to end the word


Posted by: Rachel in Disability Issues, Do Something

The casual use of the word “retarded” just sets my teeth on edge. I can’t tell you the number of self-described liberals/progressives I hear use it. I’ve actually thrown down with more than one friend - again, people who work in progressive nonprofits, in civil rights, in advocacy - over its use, and been told it’s not a big deal, it’s not an insult to people with disabilities, or I’m just being too sensitive.

So I’m more than happy to pass this along. Special Olympics has launched a campaign, “Spread the Word to End the Word,” to get people to think about how their language affects others. They offer a lot of ways to support the effort...........

the american medical system is a mess

and the following article illustrates exactly WHY (such as if a person has insurance, their insurance company usually pays way LESS than half the cost the health care providers would charge an uninsured individual. effed up or what?)

Fainting in This Country Can Carry a $10,000 Price Tag

By Kirk Nielsen, Miller-McCune.com

There's really no good time or place for a blackout, though some are significantly worse than others. Mine, one subzero evening in downtown St. Paul, Minn., last December, fell solidly on the inauspicious side of the spectrum.

The Level 2 lobby of the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts was teeming with people waiting for the second half of a fine production of Irving Berlin's White Christmas to begin. I was standing with my mom, sister and her three young-adult kids. Through the windows of a dazzling curtain-wall that spans the front of the trapezoidal building, I was admiring the golden lights on the canopy of trees in the park across the street. On the warm side of the glass, a professional trio of carolers had just finished a short intermission set. I was in a good mood; a fantastic woman in Duluth was expecting my call after the show to finalize plans for our first date the next night.

Suddenly, I felt weirdly lightheaded, so I turned to hasten to my seat. I took three steps, got the spins and took a nosedive, just missing the edge of a wine and coffee bar. Upon impact, I regained some consciousness and sat half-sprawled with my elbows on the carpet. A short-haired middle-age woman was crouching next to me, asking me if I knew my name, what day of the week it was, where I was. I did, which eliminated the possibility of stroke. "You blacked out ... I'm not a doctor ... That happens to me ... You should lay down," I recall her saying. .......

one of 'em is effing nuts and one is effing funny

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no comment

hmmmmmmmmmm

wicked creepy (and kinda VERY disgusting)


KFC Now Filling Potholes...With Ads
By Daniel Luzer

In the latest sign that the economy is even more screwed than we thought: The city of Louisville, Kentucky has struck a deal allowing the fast-food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken to fill in the city's potholes—in exchange for stamping the pavement as "Re-freshed by KFC."

KFC explains that the company's foray into highway repair is a tie-in to its new "fresh" campaign, which focuses on food quality. Well, nice to know that it isn't part of the "take advantage of the county's economic collapse" or "appropriation of municipal public works" campaigns. According to Ad Age:...................................

........................Yea, because there's nothing creepy whatsoever about a fast food company, especially one accused of harming the Amazon rainforest, providing low wages, and being cruel to animals taking over city maintenance.....................

saw this on boing boing and figured it wouldn't hurt

this isn't because i remember jack sheldon

from school house rock (which i of course do as do ALL other americans who were once YOUNG)

it's because i remember jack sheldon from the merv griffin show. merv loved him (and so did i). not only could jack blow that horn, he sure was funny as all hell

Blossom Dearie’s “Conjunction Junction” Romance?

Did the woman who sang "Unpack Your Adjectives" ever get together with the guy who sang "I'm Just a Bill"?

It turns out the answer is yes! Sort of...

Blossom Dearie was an occasional singer on Schoolhouse Rock, and so was Jack Sheldon, who sang the gravelly-voiced conductor song Conjunction Junction. When Blossom came to Hollywood (for a big recording session at Capitol Records), Sheldon was her trumpeter. "I was madly in love with Blossom at the time," he remembered wistfully. "We were going everywhere and doing everything together..." reads his remembrance 34 years later from the liner notes of Blossom's re-issued album. "Blossom was marvelous."

(Click to hear Jack's love-struck trumpet
on the album's title track, "May I Come In?")
Blossom Dearie, the beguiling blonde jazz chanteuse, died Saturday at the age of 82. But when she'd met Sheldon in 1964, she was just 38, and had already lived in Paris for several years — even though she didn't speak French! Within a few years, Blossom had recorded several jazz albums and married a Belgian saxophone player named Bobby Jaspar, who had recorded with Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Chet Baker. In 1963, Jaspar died of a heart attack at the age of 37 — but Blossom Dearie was about to earn her own fame in America.
..........

human rights?

what are they? i seem to have forgotten in the PAST EIGHT LONG HARD YEARS

it won't solve all the ills in the entire cosmos, but it's a baby step and that's how to start

(now ask yourself, how could anyone be AGAINST human rights?)

U.S. to Join U.N. Human Rights Council, Reversing Bush Policy

By Colum Lynch

Washington Post Staff Writer

UNITED NATIONS, March 31 -- The Obama administration decided Tuesday to seek a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council, reversing a decision by the Bush administration to shun the United Nations' premier rights body to protest the influence of repressive states.

"Human rights are an essential element of American global foreign policy," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a statement. "With others, we will engage in the work of improving the U.N. human rights system. . . . We believe every nation must live by and help shape global rules that ensure people enjoy the right to live freely and participate fully in their societies."

The United States announced it would participate in elections in May for one of three seats on the 47-member council, joining a slate that includes Belgium and Norway........