yo yo yo search it!

Saturday, July 25, 2009

she's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack

yup the very same id-jit that said matthew shepard's death was a hoax. yup, she's back with more witty repartee


Rep. Virginia Foxx: ‘There Are No Americans Who Don’t Have Health Care’


Earlier today, several female Republican House members held a press conference today to attack President Obama’s push for health insurance reform. “The Democrat way is not reforming healthcare, it’s destroying it,” announced Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN).

Perhaps the most attention-grabbing moment occurred when Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) announced that “there are no Americans who don’t have healthcare“:

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) disputes President Obama’s claim that 47 million Americans lack healthcare. “There are no Americans who don’t have healthcare. Everybody in this country has access to healthcare,” she says. “We do have about 7.5 million Americans who want to purchase health insurance who can not afford it,” she says, urging Congress to adopt a new plan for healthcare reform that wouldn’t “destroy what is good about healthcare in this country” and “give the government control of our lives.”





Friday, July 24, 2009

my gift to you: happy friday!



(via)

happy HOLY friday!


boing boing brings us a HOLY vending machine

I'm not sure what I like more, that you can get a miniature Bible or a set of Rosaries for 50¢, or that this is owned by a company called "Impulse Amusements". You know, for when you find it impulsively amusing to have the blood of Christ wash away your sins.............

the other day, i posted the following:

what would you think of me if i said..........

it was about the comments of ralph peters, retired military. ralph called for the taliban or al-qaeda or whoever the fuck, to murder pfc bowe bergdahl. he called for them to do so ON NETWORK (well if you consider faux 'news' to be network) TELEVISION. he called for it and there was little to no outrage (at least from msm). i want the parents, family and friends of pfc bergdahl to know the rest of us DO NOT feel like that. we want him to come home safe and unharmed. we are praying for his release. i am praying faux 'news' gets turned off on every tv set it was ever on.

this (REAL, unlike anything on faux. well sometimes shep smith has real news on) news story has my heart growing.

Pentagon furious over call for execution of captured soldier


By David Edwards and Stephen Webster
According to NBC’s top Pentagon correspondent, the Department of Defense is furious with Fox News analyst Ralph Peters, who said on July 19 that the Taliban should murder 23-year-old Private First Class Bowe Bergdahl, captured after he strayed from his post, to save the Army “legal hassles and legal bills.”

Peters, a well-known Neoconservative and frequent Fox News guest, attempted to clarify his shocking statement on Tuesday night’s O’Reilly Factor, telling right-wing host Bill O’Reilly he believes that Bergdahl had “deserted” his unit and deserved no sympathy. He did not apologize. O’Reilly added that Bergdahl must be “crazy.”

However, Wednesday night MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow fired back, interviewing Jim Miklaszewski, NBC’s top Pentagon correspondent, who said the Department of Defense is furious with Peters and Fox News, adding there is no evidence that Bergdahl is a deserter.

i thought long and hard about writing this, but

i'm going to write it anyway

i'm going to preface it by saying a couple of things
#1) obviously i wasn't there. i don't know what was said, who said it and how they said it.

#2) there is NO doubt in my mind people of color (especially black men) are racially profiled and/or discriminated against. NONE. it happens ALL of the time. i've witnessed it myself countless times (and not remained silent i might add). take the example of the 8 people of color who were SHOT on or near a texas college campus (some stories say 6, some say 8). if it were 6 or 8 WHITE people it would be all over the news. there would be OUTRAGE and vigils and facebook pages and the like. it would be all over the papers, tv, the net EVERYWHERE. it was barely mentioned in passing. my proof right there. (they were NOT killed i should mention. but 6 or 8 white people shot on a college campus is BIG BIG BIG news. i guess 6 or 8 people of color DO NOT COUNT AS MUCH).

so here are my thoughts. the person who called the police on professor gates had every right to do so. she saw SOMEONE attempting to force their way into a home. i'd call the police as well. i don't care if it was mother theresa herself. it's our civic duty to watch out for each other in our neighborhoods. the police had every right to respond to that call. the police had every right to ask professor gates for identification. i don't care if he was 96, had a cane and was black, white or blue.

after all of that things get fuzzy. if according to sgt crowley, he indeed warned professor gates TWICE about being arrested then i have less of an issue with him being arrested.

i was going to put myself in professor gates' position and say i'd be mad if the same happened to me and why i'd be mad. then i was going to do the same, but change my position to me being offput for a moment by having to prove to the police i indeed DID live there - then me quickly getting over it because i knew they were DOING THEIR JOBS. i can't say that though because i'm a white woman. i KNOW it is different for me and for professor gates. i really do know that.

what happens if sgt crowley DID do his job. what happens if professor gates DID overreact? that's just a what if mind you. some cases are CLEARLY wrong. some cases are CLEARLY based on color alone. all i'm saying is this case really does seem to have TWO sides. let's listen to BOTH of them.

oh and by the way, i've seen plenty of people OF ALL COLORS being arrested for not just SHUTTING THE EFF UP when they were warned to do so.

well here are the two sides:

Officer Tells His Side of The Story in Gates Arrest
Washington Post Staff Writers
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 23 -- What began as a prominent African American professor's dispute with a white police sergeant grew more complex Thursday as the officer spoke publicly for the first time and a fuller portrait of his life emerged.

Sgt. James Crowley said Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. was combative from the moment the officer arrived at his house last week to respond to a call about a possible burglary. As the confrontation escalated, Crowley said he warned Gates that he risked arrest.

"The second warning was with me holding a set of handcuffs in my hands -- something I really didn't want to do," Crowley said in a radio interview. "The professor at any time could have resolved the issue by quieting down and/or going back inside his house."......

Renowned Af-Am Professor Gates Arrested for Disorderly Conduct
Gates, who was trying to enter his own home, reportedly accused police of being racist

this might very well be a story for


chuck loves pig meat
but i'm posting it here instead.
(ah hell, i'll cross-post it)
there are many things i'm addicted to. MEAT IS NOT ONE OF THEM. i don't preach unless i'm back into a corner (or made fun of. then you actually better watch your back). i do have a concern for how we treat our animals. i think it ALL ties together. the nicer we are to our animals AND TO OURSELVES, the easier life on earth will be. yes, i really truly believe that. i tend to anthropomorphize when i'm dealing with animals. i KNOW that. even if i don't, i KNOW animals have feelings. they CAN AND DO feel at the VERY LEAST, pain. we have NO business inflicting pain upon them (or others of our own species).

anyway, this may be of interest to one and all (or none)
Gonzo Gastronomy: How the Food Industry Has Made Bacon a Weapon of Mass Destruction

By Arun Gupta, AlterNet

Among my fondest childhood memories is savoring a strip of perfectly cooked bacon that had just been dragged through a puddle of maple syrup. It was an illicit pleasure; varnishing the fatty, salty, smoky bacon with sweet arboreal sap felt taboo. How could such simple ingredients produce such riotous flavors?

That was then. Today, you don't need to tax yourself applying syrup to bacon -- McDonald's does it for you with the McGriddle. It conveniently takes an egg, American cheese and pork and nestles it between pancakelike biscuits suffused with genuine fake-maple-syrup flavor.

The McGriddle is just one moment in an era of extreme food combinations -- a moment in which bacon plays a starring role, from high cuisine to low.

There is: bacon ice cream; bacon-infused vodka; deep-fried bacon; chocolate-dipped bacon; bacon-wrapped hot dogs filled with cheese (which are fried, then battered and fried again); brioche bread pudding smothered in bacon sauce; hard-boiled eggs coated in mayonnaise encased in bacon -- called, appropriately, the "heart attack snack"; bacon salt; bacon doughnuts, cupcakes and cookies; bacon mints; "baconnaise," which Jon Stewart described as "for people who want to get heart disease but [are] too lazy to actually make bacon"; Wendy's "Baconnator" -- six strips of bacon mounded atop a half-pound cheeseburger -- which sold 25 million in its first eight weeks; and the outlandish bacon explosion -- a barbecued meat brick composed of 2 pounds of bacon wrapped around 2 pounds of sausage............

Thursday, July 23, 2009

my new hero; a freak with a bullhorn



via

if you can...why don't you volunteer to help out!


Syndicated cartoon strip headed for the Commons needs your uploading and tagging help!

Creative Commons artist and filmmaker Nina "Sita Sings the Blues" Paley sez, "Artist Nina Paley (that's me) and writer Stephen Hersh are freeing 'The Hots,' a daily+Sunday comic strip they produced for King Features Syndicate in 2002-2003. They are making all the strips free under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike license. But the project needs volunteers to upload the strips one at a time to Wikimedia Commons, where they can be read, shared, and enjoyed by everyone. They also need descriptions and dates; any other relevant information is welcome."

The Hots return - and need your help (Thanks, Nina!)..............


oh in case you've NOT seen it watch sita sings the blues here

pic from sita sings the blues

tragedy

an 8 year old girl raped by 4 boys (and i do mean boys, 9-14). is that bad enough for this girl? being assaulted and hurt and having this in your mind for the rest of your life? well is that the worst thing you can think of?

hell no

what's worse you ask?

well i'll tell you

having your parents disown you because they claim it's YOUR fault you were raped. having your parents disown you because they claim YOU brought dishonor to THEIR family

fuck the girls parents. i don't care where they're from or what their beliefs are. she's an 8 year old girl. she NEEDS HER FAMILY RIGHT NOW (well with parents like that, i'm guessing she's better off with the state)

4 boys accused in rape of 8-year-old girl
by Michael Ferraresi and Christopher Cash - Jul. 22, 2009 05:55 PM
The Arizona Republic

Phoenix police announced Wednesday the arrest of four boys suspected of sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl in a shed next to a vacant apartment unit last week.

The four boys are suspected of luring the girl with chewing gum into the shed in west Phoenix before they attacked her, according to Phoenix police Sgt. Andy Hill.

The boys, ages 9 to14, were arrested by Phoenix Maryvale Precinct officers around 5 p.m. Tuesday. The attack occurred Thursday. They are being held at a juvenile detention center on suspicion of sexual assault and kidnapping, police said. The oldest could be tried as an adult. .............

wow john yoo seemed a tad uncomfy here, no?



Aussie comedy show raids John Yoo's Berkeley class
-- Daniel Tencer
A popular Australian comedy show took the fight over the US's torture program straight to John Yoo's law class at the University of California-Berkeley.

A performer from The Chaser's War on Everything interrupted a lecture by John Yoo -- the former Department of Justice lawyer who wrote many of the legal memos justifying the Bush administration's torture program -- by standing up on a desk dressed in "Abu Ghraib" fashion -- a dark cloak and a black, pointed hood.

"Professor, I've got one question," the comedian asked. "How long am I required to stand here until it counts as torture?"......


skewed data????????????

say it ain't sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. man, that's so hard to believe (that's sarcasm there my peeps)

as an aside, on the way home from work the other day, i heard the ceo or the president or someone at the top of kaiser permanente being interviewed (on npr). he was also taking questions. i hate to say it but he made a LOT of sense you can listen right here


do you know what a magician does? she or he is proficient in M I S D I R E C T I O N. seems so is this firm (and most all of our 'leaders' too)

Research Firm Cited by GOP Is Owned by Health Insurer
Washington Post Staff Writer

The political battle over health-care reform is waged largely with numbers, and few number-crunchers have shaped the debate as much as the Lewin Group, a consulting firm whose research has been widely cited by opponents of a public insurance option.

To Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the House Republican whip, it is "the nonpartisan Lewin Group." To Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee, it is an "independent research firm." To Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the second-ranking Republican on the pivotal Finance Committee, it is "well known as one of the most nonpartisan groups in the country."

Generally left unsaid amid all the citations is that the Lewin Group is wholly owned by UnitedHealth Group, one of the nation's largest insurers...............

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

assholes. can you believe they're still foaming at the mouth?

oh my goddess it's 2009 and this effing

believer in such things as 'ex' gays wants books BANNED in her PUBLIC library. you know if you're THAT worried your kids are going to read about sex or read the word 'fornication' follow them around 24/7. OR, you can love them and do your best to instill in them a sense of love, nurturing, intelligence, volunteerism, caring, humanity, ACCEPTANCE. then let them make their OWN minds up about which books to read and which not to read

silly people i guess ignorance is NOT bliss. is it ginny and jim?

Library fight riles up city, leads to book-burning demand
By Jason Hanna

A fight over books depicting sex and homosexuality has riled up a small Wisconsin city, cost some library board members their positions and prompted a call for a public book burning.

The battle has stirred much of West Bend, a city of roughly 30,000 people about 35 miles north of Milwaukee. Residents have sparred for months on blogs, airwaves and at meetings, including one where a man told the city's library director he should be tarred and feathered.

The row even spread to this year's Fourth of July parade, which included a float featuring a washing machine and a sign that read "keep our library clean."

"If you told me we would be going through a book challenge of this nature, I'd think, 'Never in a million years,' " said Michael Tyree, director of the West Bend Community Memorial Library.

The strife began in February when West Bend couple Jim and Ginny Maziarka objected to some of the content in the city library's young-adult section. They later petitioned the library board to move any sexually explicit books -- the definition of which would be debated -- from the young-adult section to the adult section and to label them as sexually explicit.......

i just read (well THIS MORNING) some very sad news



the ny times tells us anthony mangieri has shuttered sold una pizza napoletana (NOT the name, that's still his. the space). seems he wants to move on to cal e forn eye yay

i've never had his pizza. i've been dreaming about it. i WANT it. he only has FOUR kinds. no extra this or extra that. no sides. no salads. no desserts. he makes his dough before hand (i think a day or two in advance) and doesn't use yeast (i think i read that). he is only open a few days a week in the evenings. when the dough is gone, he shuts down for the night.

he built his wood burning oven too. he had someone come over from the old country to build one, but he wasn't quite satisfied, so he tore it out and started again.

that's my kind o' man (him being all inked up doesn't hurt that part) and my kind o' pizza place.



The Oven Cools, for Now
By OLIVER SCHWANER-ALBRIGHT
LAST Sunday in the East Village, Una Pizza Napoletana was as busy as usual. But by Monday afternoon, the can used for drizzling olive oil had been packed and the crucifix was off the wall. With little fanfare, Anthony Mangieri, the owner and pizzaiolo, closed his restaurant, perhaps the most meticulous pizzeria in New York.

pic: Evan Sung for The New York Times

here's a pic of his over and here is where you can find the key to what everything is






pic: (Photo: Jeremy Liebman) and article By Robin Raisfeld & Rob Patronite



it's rather intense

i'd most likely NOT watch this at work (well i personally CANNOT watch it at work. they've blocked youtube)

88 lines about 44 women
the nails



via

i've posted about chiquita before

from the links below you can see i've talked about them (and none too favorably at that) SEVERAL times

it was quite obvious to me, a lay observer, they got a hand slap when they deserved giant fines and jail time and sanctions and more.

so our good friend larisa alexandrovna (well i don't KNOW her but i do respect her and read her) and muriel kane, have the REST of the story

The Department of Justice, Corporations, Buying the Law – Part II: Strange Bargains


By Larisa Alexandrovna and Muriel Kane
Bush US Attorney arranged lenient plea deal with company paying terrorists; Lawyer who helped secure plea deal? Obama’s future Attorney General

When the US Justice Department announced in March 2007 that Chiquita Brands had pleaded guilty to “one count of engaging in transactions with a specially-designated global terrorist” and would be paying a $25 million fine, observers were astonished at the lightness of the sentence.

Between 1997 and February of 2004, Chiquita made $1.7 million in payments to a right-wing paramilitary group, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), in regions where it had banana-growing operations. During that period, AUC conducted a “dirty war” against Colombia’s left-wing FARC guerrillas, marked by widespread murders of union leaders and farmers, as well as trafficking in cocaine and heroin...........


chiquita story 7
chiquita story 6
chiquita story 1
chiquita story 2
chiquita story 3
chiquita story 4
chiquita story 5

uh oh oops she did it again

she continues to provide me with laughs galore. unfortunately at what expense (so to speak)?

and what's this 'may have' bullshite. it either VIOLATED ethics law or didn't. take your vagina outta your momma's handbag and take a stand. make a decision

Palin Legal Donations May Have Violated Ethics Law, Report Finds
Washington Post Staff Writers
An independent investigator has determined that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) may have violated state ethics laws by soliciting and accepting private donations to pay $500,000 in legal debts.

A confidential report, obtained by The Washington Post on Tuesday, says Palin may have violated laws prohibiting elected officials from using their office for "personal gain" by raising money for her Alaska Fund Trust. She established the fund to help defend herself against more than a dozen ethics complaints filed against her since she took office.

"There is little doubt that the Alaska Fund Trust will provide 'personal gain' to Governor Palin because the trust will provide a benefit to the governor's financial interest," Anchorage lawyer Thomas M. Daniel wrote in his nine-page report, dated July 14...........

because we can't forget we're THERE too


they saw the russians leave and they'll see us leave as well. we make GIANT tactical mistakes. we didn't understand the vietnamese very well. we do NOT understand the iraqis AT ALL nor do we understand the people of afghanistan AT ALL either. i'm not a warrior. i know enough to UNDERSTAND one's 'enemy'. the picture (from wapo) features a 23 year old marine. it casually mentions he's had THREE tours. wtf???????????????? 23 years old and 3 tours of duty? what's wrong with THAT picture? (oh and thank you to all those who have served. any time. any where. i was never mad at you. i was and am mad at the decisions made by men in suits and ties sitting in comfy chairs)
U.S. Deaths Hit A Record High In Afghanistan
Toll of 31 So Far in July Makes For Deadliest Month of the War


Washington Post Staff Writers
GARMSIR, Afghanistan, July 21 -- U.S. deaths in Afghanistan have surged to a record high this month and are likely to remain elevated as American and NATO forces settle into outposts in southern Afghan villages and cities where Taliban forces have traditionally been the strongest.

The rising death toll comes as the country prepares for a presidential election next month, and could erode U.S. public support for a war that is already among the longest in U.S. history.

"This is probably the new normal," said Seth G. Jones, an analyst for the Rand Corp. and author of a new book on the U.S. military's nearly eight-year-old war in Afghanistan. "I'd actually be shocked if casualties didn't continue to increase."......


pic: Marine Cpl. Cory Mathis, 23, of Elkton, Md., relaxed with comrades recently in the Helmand River after nine days of missions in southern Afghanistan. The tattoo on his back, he says, "is a memorial to all the fallen Marines I've served with in my three deployments." (By Nikki Kahn -- The Washington Post)

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

this woman should be queen

of the effing UNIVERSE
(i love her SO much)

here's a lil' somethin' silly



and a lil' somethin' not so silly

nsfw



(via)

but it's GOOD

funny




(via bits & pieces)

more hidden data (from king george's reign) discovered

oh it's all the tip of the iceberg. they can find out he personally committed felonies in front of the vienna boys choir and he's be teflon

why? don't know. i just don't know

anyway, we don't really need a study to know talking on a cellphone and driving ARE NOT A GOOD MIX (they're no pb&j). it doesn't take a rocket scientist (by the way, i actually 'dated' a rocket scientist back in the day) to know this is DANGEROUS. hell, it's been found to be dangerous texting and walking.

don't shave, don't put your makeup on, don't read the paper, don't text, don't talk on the phone WHILE YOU ARE ACTUALLY DRIVING

ok?

oh one more thing. who gives a flying YOO HOO if congress is angered? i don't. THEY WORK FOR ME
ok?
U.S. Withheld Data on Risks of Distracted Driving
By MATT RICHTEL
In 2003, researchers at a federal agency proposed a long-term study of 10,000 drivers to assess the safety risk posed by cellphone use behind the wheel.

They sought the study based on evidence that such multitasking was a serious and growing threat on America’s roadways.

But such an ambitious study never happened. And the researchers’ agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, decided not to make public hundreds of pages of research and warnings about the use of phones by drivers — in part, officials say, because of concerns about angering Congress.

On Tuesday, the full body of research is being made public for the first time by two consumer advocacy groups, which filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for the documents. The Center for Auto Safety and Public Citizen provided a copy to The New York Times, which is publishing the documents on its Web site.

In interviews, the officials who withheld the research offered their fullest explanation to date.............

what would you think of me if i said

the taliban should save america a whole hell of a lot of time and money and kill pfc bowe bergdahl (who is from idaho and who is 23 years old and who was recently kidnapped by the taliban. we do NOT yet know under what circumstances he was taken. even if we DID know, would you ever forgive me for saying that?)

what if keith olbermann said that? what if barack obama said that? what if rachel maddow said that? what if senator franken said that?

what would happen if those words (or similar ones) were uttered by a so-called 'liberal'? what would you do if they were uttered on cnn or nbc or cbs or msnbc? would you be outraged? would you call for the firing (as a consultant, newscaster, etc) for the person that said those horrid, ugly, hateful, treasonous words? would you demand the network who aired that evil broadcast to at the very least apologize?

well faux 'news' let them be uttered by their 'strategic analyst' RETIRED lt. col ralph peters (who also said in the future, service members were going to kill end up murdering journalists, just because........

where is our outrage over what was said by peters? where is our outrage about faux 'news' allowing this to be said? where is our sympathy for the family and friends of pfc bergdahl?

isn't pfc bergdahl an american soldier? is this how we allow american soldiers to be talked about?

can you just image what that 23 year old is going through? can you imagine what his family is going through? well i can't. i know what i'm going through and i don't even know him. he is in my thoughts and prayers for a SAFE AND SPEEDY return

Fox analyst: Taliban should kill US soldier if he deserted

By David Edwards and Daniel Tencer
ust a few months after he advocated for military attacks on journalists, Fox News strategic analyst Lt. Col. Ralph Peters is telling viewers that the soldier captured by the Taliban, now positively identified as 23-year-old Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl of Idaho, collaborated with the enemy by appearing in a Taliban hostage video.

Peters also said that the circumstances surrounding Bergdahl’s disappearance suggest he may have deserted his unit — and implied the Taliban should kill the US serviceman for that.

“We must wait until all the facts are in to make a judgment, but … he is an apparent deserter,” Peters told Fox’s America’s News Headquarters on Sunday. “Reports are indeed that he had abandoned his buddies, abandoned his post and walked off.”

Bergdahl disappeared from a base in eastern Afghanistan on June 30, and was declared “missing-captured” on July 3..........


Fox News Guest Ralph Peters Suggests Taliban Should Kill U.S. Soldier If He Deserted


Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. soldier who has been captured by the Taliban and appears in a video released this weekend by his captors, “went missing from his base in eastern Afghanistan on June 30.” The circumstances of his capture are still unknown. ABC News reports, “Defense officials said it appeared he somehow left his base in Paktika Province at night, likely accompanied by several Afghan soldiers.” On July 6, the Taliban claimed that “a drunken American soldier had come out of his garrison” and was captured by them.

On Fox News yesterday, guest Ralph Peters, a retired Army Lt. Col., urged against leaping to conclusions. “I was to stress first of all that we must wait until all of the facts are in until we make a final judgment,” Peters said, but quickly added, “He is an apparent deserter,” “he is collaborating with the enemy,” and “we know that this private is a liar.” Peters then suggested that if Bergdahl is a deserter, the Taliban should kill him:.........

rachel and pat

one has a brain (even though she IS a woman) the other just has hate, evil, an emptiness inside and is consumed by fear.

Rachel Maddow Takes Down MSNBC's Resident Racist, Pat Buchanan
By Rachel Maddow, The Rachel Maddow Show.

Editor's Note: For decades, conservatives played on the racist and sexist fears of their constituents by spinning dramatic tales of the white man's decline in the face of advances by women, African-Americans, Hispanics and other minority groups. Conveniently putting aside their calls for personal responsibility, conservative pundits and many GOP legislators blamed the woes of working-class white men on affirmative action programs.

Uppity women and minority groups, or so the story went, were exploiting past injustice to gain an unearned leg-up over more deserving white males. White men were, allegedly, increasingly victimized by government policies that privileged women and minorities.

Needless to say, conservatives were far more concerned with rolling back the rights of women and minorities than offering policy solutions that truly helped low-income white men.

In the past few months, conservative griping about the oppression of white men has come back with a vengeance. Lacking any real material with which to attack judicial nominee Sonia Sotomayor, Republican lawmakers and media conservatives have mightily struggled to paint Sotomayor as an unqualified affirmative-action candidate -- one committed to using the law to erode the rights of while males. ............

Monday, July 20, 2009

ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww


via

do you know where your make-up ingredients come from?


you could be buying 'all natural' and non animal tested and on and on. but did you know there is a giant possiblitiy part of that makeup was mined by CHILDREN? i didn't. i do now

Child labour used in cosmetics industry

Deep in the jungle of Jharkhand state in eastern India, at the end of a rutted track passable only by motorbike, a six-year-old girl named Sonia sat in the scorching midday sun, sifting jagged stones in an open-cast mine in the hope of earning enough money for a meal.

Sonia was halfway through her working day and she was already exhausted and dishevelled. Her hair was matted and her pretty flower-patterned dress spoilt by dust.

She barely had enough energy to glance at her eight-year-old cousin Guri, toiling intently beside her as they searched the stones for pieces of mica, a shiny material whose many uses include putting the sparkle into make-up.

If the girls spotted enough mica, they might earn 63p each for a 12-hour day. If they found none, they would probably go hungry.

The contrast between this ugly scene of exploitation, hidden from view in a forest teeming with Maoist guerrillas where few westerners dare to venture, and the glamour of the cosmetics industry could hardly be more glaring.

India’s exports of mica are used to make paints and electronic goods as well as glossy lipstick and eyeshadow..................




...........Some of the mica goes on to Merck KGaA, the German-based pharmaceuticals and chemicals giant, whose products are used to create gold, bronze and pearl effects in make-up.

Merck confirmed it was aware that children were collecting mica in Jharkhand. In a statement, the company said its suppliers were “contractually required” not to employ children.

It added, however: “Unfortunately, it is very difficult to monitor further along the supply chain, ie with regard to the collection of mica in remote areas, especially since these areas are considered not safe.”

A spokeswoman said a study completed last year by the Indo-German Export Promotion Foundation had found that “children are indeed involved in the collection of mica — however exclusively within the scope of family groups. It is an important result for us that no cases of permanent work, bonded or slave labour were found”.

She said Merck had been “informally” funding one local school and would follow the study’s recommendations to set up another school for a maximum of 200 pupils............


pic:

(Nicci Smith)

Sonia digs for mica, a key ingredient of cosmetics

swine and savages and beasts and soul-less beings

these men happen to be in iran, but it happens the world over. it's sick-making. i really feel nauseated reading this

Basiji militiaman: I raped virgins before their execution

By Daniel Tencer
A member of Iran’s notorious Basij militia who ran afoul of his superiors when he released two teenaged pro-democracy protesters says he was tasked with taking the virginity of young females sentenced to die.

In an exclusive interview with the Jerusalem Post, the unnamed male described how, as an 18-year-old Basij recruit, he was tasked with taking the virginity of girls who were sentenced to die.

Under Iranian law, a female cannot be executed if she is a virgin. Thus, prison officials forced young women into a brief “marriage” before their sentence was carried out.

“I could tell that the girls were more afraid of their ‘wedding’ night than of the execution that awaited them in the morning. And they would always fight back, so we would have to put sleeping pills in their food. By morning the girls would have an empty expression; it seemed like they were ready or wanted to die.............

off with their heads let them eat cake!!!!





i am fantasizing there is a special place in hell for senator gregg (fantasy is NOT the same as reality by the way. i do NOT wish anyone harm. even asswipes like this)

Sen. Gregg: Force the poor to buy health insurance
-- Stephen C. Webster

New Hampshire Republican Senator Judd Gregg, who was almost President Obama's commerce secretary, thinks he has a solution to America's healthcare crisis. Watch him explain the plan below:

This video is from Fox News Sunday, published to YouTube on Sunday, July 19, 2009. (it's above)

If you didn't catch that, here's what the senator just proposed:

Force the poor into buying "high-deductible" policies. But don't call them poor. Call them "illegal" or "young people" with wonky spending priorities.

Throw in a subsidy of unknown value to somehow "incentivize" folks who have not seen a doctor in years to suddenly vanish a valuable several hundred dollars from their monthly income for individual or family plans.

Don't mention any way to "incentivize" insurance companies to cover the "uninsurable" due to pre-existing conditions or chronic illnesses, of whom there are many. In fact, ignore them. They're not much concern at the ballot box.

Finally, Gregg's masterstroke: Don't mention that 'high deductible' means insurance which will refuse payment on needed care unless the holder can pay a lump sum to initiate treatment, usually $5,000 - $30,000, or more, which of course is Absolutely No Good to someone who cannot afford decent insurance in the first place. (At which point, many Republicans would suggest "health savings accounts" to fill in the gap, which is also no help to the poor.).........

oh i read angela's ashes all right



and i STILL cry when i think of it. i've seen mr mccourt on television many times. i've never been lucky enough to see him in person. he absolutely wasn't bitter. he absolutely had a grand sense of humor. he absolutely seemed like a decent man. he got through hell and he shared what he could with us so we would know ANYTHING is possible.

we'll miss you frank
Frank McCourt, Author of ‘Angela’s Ashes,’ Dies at 78

By WILLIAM GRIMES
Frank McCourt, a former New York City schoolteacher who turned his miserable childhood in Limerick, Ireland, into a phenomenally popular, Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir, “Angela’s Ashes,” died in Manhattan on Sunday. He was 78 and lived in Manhattan and Roxbury, Conn.

The cause was metastatic melanoma, said Mr. McCourt’s brother, the writer Malachy McCourt.

Mr. McCourt, who taught in the city’s school system for nearly 30 years, had always told his writing students that they were their own best material. In his mid-60s, he decided to take his own advice, sitting down to commit his childhood memories to paper and producing what he described as “a modest book, modestly written.”

In it Mr. McCourt described a childhood of terrible deprivation...........

pic:
Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times
Frank McCourt in 2005 in a classroom at Stuyvesant High School in New York, where he taught creative writing.

Frank McCourt, Author Of Angela's Ashes, Dies At 78
Frank McCourt's 1996 novel "Angela's Ashes" sold more than 5 million copies

The Hartford Courant
Frank McCourt, the Irish-American storyteller who parlayed the miseries of a Limerick upbringing into an extraordinary late-life literary blooming, died of cancer Sunday in New York City. McCourt, 78, had spent the past 13 years buoyantly touring the globe on reading tours and writing two sequels to his 1996 best-seller, "Angela's Ashes," which sold more than 5 million copies and was translated into more than 20 languages. He had been undergoing treatment for skin cancer in recent years and been released in early June from New York's Memorial Sloan Kettering Center to recuperate at his Roxbury home. Two weeks ago he was diagnosed with meningitis, a frequent complication of patients whose immune systems are compromised by cancer treatment, and McCourt was moved to a New York hospice where over the past few days family and friends from around the world had gathered at his bedside. During the past decade McCourt had become a familiar, popular figure and a kind of permanent cultural resource around Connecticut............


pic: Frank McCourt author of 'Angela's Ashes' at his Roxbury home in 1999. (TOM BROWN / HARTFORD COURANT / August 9, 1999)

Sunday, July 19, 2009

this really IS interesting

really

Hands or Paws or Anything They Got

Masturbation in the animal kingdom.

Isn't it wonderful when science and religion come together? My Slate colleague William Saletan points out that a recent paper has laid the groundwork for a pro-life defense of onanism. According to obstetrician David Greening, a rigorous program of daily masturbation can actually improve sperm quality in men with fertility problems. (Samples collected at the end of the program showed less DNA damage and higher sperm motility than samples from control subjects.) Since masturbation can help you have babies, Saletan argues, it must also serve the "procreative and unitive purposes" described in the Catechism. Let's take this one step further. If we've redeemed this dangerous supplement for man, what about the fowl of the air and the beasts of the field? Surely what works for God will work for Nature, too: Since masturbation improves fertility, then it ought to be a prime target for natural selection. That is to say, any animal that evolves the ability or inclination for self-pleasure will end up with healthier sperm, and more offspring, than its competitors. Indeed, if you take the theory of evolution seriously—as the Catholic Church has since February—then you might expect that all animals masturbate, or at least all animals with a reproductive system sufficiently like our own..............

via

an addictive

site; pingwire (is an (almost) live feed of images being posted to twitter with)

i do have a twitter account and YES I DO USE IT. i didn't know you could post pics with
twitpic though

oh i'm @aroseisarose

via

i can respect a conscientious objector

who says they do not want to fight in an illegal, immoral and unjust war (WHICH JUST HAPPENED TO BE DECLARED BY KING GEORGE AND NOT BARACK OBAMA)

i cannot respect this effing lunacy.....

Retired general, lieutenant colonel join reservist's Obama suit

A controversial suit brought by a U.S. Army reservist has been joined by a retired Army two-star general and an active reserve Air Force lieutenant colonel.

Maj. Stefan Frederick Cook filed the suit July 8 in federal court here asking for conscientious objector status and a preliminary injunction based upon his belief that President Barack Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States and is therefore ineligible to serve as president of the United States and commander-in-chief of the U.S. Armed Forces.................


no shame, no apolgies


no remorse. no idea what he did at ALL. he said he intended NO HARM. do you think calling someone a nigger (and that someone in this case being the president of the united states) is harmless? i sure don't

i can't really point my finger at any of the recipients of these 'jokes'. i too get many 'joke' emails that i don't even read. i just hit the delete key.

Local
Saturday, Jul. 18, 2009
Atwater councilman admits passing along racist e-mails
Jokes go to former, current city officials

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article uses language that is offensive but necessary to show a pattern of conduct by an Atwater city councilman.

ATWATER -- In the past several months Atwater City Councilman Gary Frago has sent at least a half-dozen e-mails to city staff and other prominent community members containing racist jokes aimed at President Barack Obama, his wife and black people in general.

In all, the Sun-Star obtained seven e-mails that Frago sent from October 2008 to February 2009 from an anonymous source. Some compared Obama to O.J. Simpson while others suggested that "nigger rigs" should now be called "presidential solutions."

Perhaps the most overboard e-mail was sent on Jan. 15. It read: "Breaking News Playboy just offered Sarah Palin $1 million to pose nude in the January issue. Michelle Obama got the same offer from National Geographic."

Frago admitted sending the e-mails, but showed no regret. "If they're from me, then I sent them," he said. "I have no disrespect for the president or anybody, they weren't meant in any bad way or harm."........



pic: - (Merced Sun-Star/MCT)

i want our great land to be safe

i want our people to be safe. i want to protect us from terrorists. both foreign AND domestic (and believe me i'm more afraid of and there is a greater threat from DOMESTIC terrorists). i want all of this badly. i want it all within the bounds and confines of the LAW.

i do NOT want our warriors using rape as a weapon of war as they did/are doing in bosnia and columbia and sudan (and a great many MORE areas). i do not want our warriors to start drafting child soldiers as they do in the congo and elsewhere. i do not want us to turn into the beasts that are running rampant through many other countries.

this is the united states of america. WE DO NOT TORTURE.

we ARE now the savages. we MUST stop this. we MUST repair what we've done. WE MUST BRING THOSE RESPONSIBLE TO JUSTICE

Internal Rifts on Road to Torment

Interviews Offer More Nuanced Look At Roles of CIA Contractors, Concerns Of Officials During Interrogations


Washington Post Staff Writers
In April 2002, as the terrorism suspect known as Abu Zubaida lay in a Bangkok hospital bed, top U.S. counterterrorism officials gathered at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., for a series of meetings on an urgent problem: how to get him to talk.

Put him in a cell filled with cadavers, was one suggestion, according to a former U.S. official with knowledge of the brainstorming sessions. Surround him with naked women, was another. Jolt him with electric shocks to the teeth, was a third.

One man's certitude lanced through the debate, according to a participant in one of the meetings. James E. Mitchell, a retired clinical psychologist for the Air Force, had studied al-Qaeda resistance techniques.........