the bbc has a video up

of a fireball in the sky

a tv station in austin was filming a race (running) and got it on video

here's the link (can't embed the video). oh, the big boyz say it is NOT debris from the two satellites that just collided

it doesn't look real

but the green pitviper is (from the bbc)

i guess there is a tiny slim chance

this man (and the others arrested in the past) are spies or insurgents or 'bad guys.

or they are simply BRAVE camera men or news reporters doing their jobs.

US military in Iraq holding cameraman

American forces in Baghdad said on Friday they are holding an Iraqi cameraman working for Reuters news agency, and a media rights group said he has been held for nearly a week without charge.

Ali Al-Mashhadani was arrested last Saturday by US troops at the Iraqi parliament press centre in Baghdad's heavily fortified government and diplomatic Green Zone compound, the news agency said.

It said Mashhadani also works freelance for the BBC and US-based National Public Radio, and urged the American military to free him immediately or produce evidence that would justify his continuing detention.

A spokesman for the US military confirmed to AFP that Mashhadani was in custody.

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said the cameraman "must be freed at once. It is unacceptable that US troops arrest a journalist and hold him on security grounds.".........

surreal moment of the week

i don't work in hartford anymore. it was a two minute trip. i work in windsor now and i go the backroads. on my way in this morning, as i do every morning, i have the bbc on (via npr). so, i'm on a VERY dark road surrounded by tobacco fields or whatever and on comes a story about dog sled racing. siberian husky dog sled racing. that's all well and good and normally NOT surreal. HOWEVER, the person doing the story was a scot (wicked heavy trainspotting accent) and the racing was happening in the uk (scotland i believe). the announcer then started interviewing this woman (she had a heavy british accent). she was talking about how most of the time there really isn't any snow so they do have to race on wheels. anyway, you had to hear it to get the full effect

Dog teams gather ahead of races
Mushers have arrived in Aviemore for the town's annual dog sled rally.
About 200 teams from all over the country will do practice runs on Friday ahead of two-days of competition. The event finishes next Tuesday.
Organised by the Siberian Husky Club of Great Britain the rally is run on tracks around Loch Morlich.
Competitors include schoolchildren and veterans who will mush teams of two and eight dogs running at up to 20mph over four-mile track..........

caging. i'd never heard of it

but it's NOT legal.......... uh oh


Former White House Communications Deputy Tim Griffin Resigns after Evidence Ties Him to Alleged Voter Suppression

Posted by Jon Ponder

Big media is ignoring the story that former White House Deputy Communications Director — and former RNC Research Director — Tim Griffin resigned as the U.S. Attorney in Arkansas last week after evidence revealed he was directly involved in alleged voter suppression in the 2004 elections.
This may be the first time you’ve heard of the illegal tactic of “caging” voters, but if BBC investigator Greg Palast is correct, it will not be the last.
Caging is a form of voter suppression involving registered mail. Typically, campaigns send registered letters to voters who are are unlikely to respond — soldiers serving overseas, for example. A list is compiled of the voters whose mail is returned marked undeliverable, or “caged.” On election day, when people on the caging list arrive to vote, campaign operatives are on hand to float challenges to their residency in the precinct. Palast says caging is a felony.
Palast recently obtained hundreds of emails sent by White House officials to Bush-Cheney operatives during the 2004 campaign. Among these were emails containing caging lists sent by Griffin, apparently in his role as communications deputy..............