world bank

saviours or a bunch o' lying weasels? i vote for the bunch. perhaps they started out with good intentions. something went wrong somewhere

World Bank pledges to save trees... then helps cut down Amazon forest
month ago it vowed to fight deforestation. Now research reveals it funds the rainforest's biggest threat. By Daniel Howden
The World Bank has emerged as one of the key backers behind an explosion of cattle ranching in the Amazon, which new research has identified as the greatest threat to the survival of the rainforest.
Ranching has grown by half in the last three years, driven by new industrial slaughterhouses which are being constructed in the Amazon basin with the help of the World Bank. The revelation flies in the face of claims from the bank that it is funding efforts to halt deforestation and reduce the massive greenhouse gas emissions it causes.
Roberto Smeraldi, head of Friends of the Earth Brazil and lead author of the new report, obtained exclusively by The Independent on Sunday, said the bank's contradictory policy on forests was now clear: "On the one hand you try and save the forest, on the other you give incentives for its conversion."
There are now more than 74 million cattle reared in the Amazon basin, the world's most important eco-system, where they outnumber people by a ratio of more than three to one. Fuelled by massive illegal ranches, the South American giant has become the world's leading beef exporter, rearing more cattle than all 25 EU members put together. This industrial expansion comes despite international agreements to combat deforestation, and claims from the government of Brazil that it is succeeding in slowing the destruction of the world's largest standing forest............

center for economic justice-boycott world bank bonds now

wtf?

a strong sense of FAMILY? wtf i say again.

is a STRONG FAMILY one where the woman needs the man's permission to not only drive BUT TO HAVE SURGERY OR LEAVE THE COUNTRY? wtf wtf wtf? that is in NO WAY A FAMILY THAT IS ANYTHING BUT DYSFUNCTIONAL.

no vote, no voice, no face. non-existence. a lashing for being raped. there is absolutely NO JUSTIFICATION FOR THE TONE OF THIS ARTICLE. NONE
security? or is it prison?
(yeah once again, NO political correctness from me on this one)

Pursuing happiness behind the veil
To be the American wife of a Saudi is to forsake familiar freedoms — or enjoy them secretly — in exchange for a secure, family-centered life.
By Jeffrey Fleishman, Los Angeles
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Teresa Malof knew she wasn't in Kentucky anymore when a cleric issued a fatwa against her secret Santa gift exchange.Malof proposed the idea at the King Fahad National Guard Hospital, where she has worked for more than a decade. It was supposed to be discreet, but rumors were whispered amid veils and hijabs that the lithe, blond nurse, raised on farmland at the edge of Appalachia, was planning to celebrate a Christian tradition in an Islamic kingdom that forbids the practicing of other religions."Even though I'm a Muslim too, I like to celebrate the holidays and have gift exchanges," said Malof, a convert to Islam who is married to the son of a former Saudi ambassador. "But word got out and the religious people came with a fatwa [or edict] against the Santa party. My husband was having a heart attack. He was worried I'd be in a lot of trouble.".......

................Malof said her husband's family has been very accepting. But it took her a while to adjust to the religious police and the brazen boys in their buffed cars. The police patrol stores and sidewalks looking to fine or arrest women deemed to be improperly veiled. And the boys and young men, living in a country where the only contact with women is arranged through families, are bored and seek titillation by leering and driving alongside cars carrying women, sometimes boxing them in on highways...............

clark hoyt, public editor of the nyt

makes a damn good arguement AGAINST the hiring of bill krisol. and it's NOT what one would think (it's NOT because he's a war mongering, king george ass kissing fool either).

Braking Kristol: 'NYT' Public Editor Hits Hiring of Columnist
NEW YORK In a message that probably is not going down well in The New York Times' front office, the paper's public editor, Clark Hoyt, has called the controversial hiring of William Kristol as an op-ed columnist a "mistake."He also wrote, in his column today, that of nearly 700 messages he has received about the selection, only one praised the pick. Public Arthur Sulzberger, he revealed, "was surprised by the vehemence of the reaction." Kristol made a bad mistake in his very first column this week, attributing a quote by Michael Medved to Michelle Malkin. And he has been criticized by liberals for his arch-cosnervative views and ardent support for the war in Iraq. But Hoyt writes: "That is not why I think Sulzberger and Rosenthal made a mistake, and I agree with their effort to address an Op-Ed lineup that, until Kristol came aboard, was at least six liberals against one conservative who isn’t always all that conservative."What bugs Hoyt, however, is remarks such as the one Kristol made on Fox News Sunday on June 25, 2006, when he said, “I think the attorney general has an absolute obligation to consider prosecution” of The New York Times for publishing an article that revealed a classified government program to sift the international banking transactions of thousands of Americans in a search for terrorists..........

and here's hoyt's piece
He May Be Unwelcome, but We’ll Survive
By CLARK HOYT
..................Of the nearly 700 messages I have received since Kristol’s selection was announced — more than half of them before he ever wrote a word for The Times — exactly one praised the choice.
Rosenthal’s mail has been particularly rough. “That rotten, traiterous [sic] piece of filth should be hung by the ankles from a lamp post and beaten by the mob rather than gaining a pulpit at ANY self-respecting news organization,” said one message. “You should be ashamed. Apparently you are only out for money and therefore an equally traiterous [sic] whore deserving the same treatment.”
Kristol would not have been my choice to join David Brooks as a second conservative voice in the mix of Times columnists, but the reaction is beyond reason. Hiring Kristol the worst idea ever? I can think of many worse. Hanging someone from a lamppost to be beaten by a mob because of his ideas? And that is from a liberal, defined by Webster as “one who is open-minded.” What have we come to?.............

to the person who commented on my 'bishop' eddie long posting

what about THESE stories?

Bling Bling Fake Bishop Eddie Long
(from pastor sin alot )

and

Bishop Eddie Long Biggest Beneficiary of Charity He Founded
(from black voices )

and

OUR OPINION
The sin of false profitsBishop Eddie Long shouldn't count himself among the needy that his charity was created to help
(from national committee for responsible philanthropy via the atlanta journal constitution)

wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

johnny chung lee's projects

ok, i said i didn't preach

and i'm not really. i just thought this was rather cute



Find more PETA videos at PETATV.com

i thought i misread this

but i re-read the figure and i didn't. the new york times found 121 instances where combat veterans of afghanistan and iraq were charged with OR proven to have committed a killing (back home). that figure, to me, is ASTOUNDING. and remember, this is ONLY WHAT THEY FOUND. who the hell really knows what the real figures are. who the hell really knows how many are suicidal OR WILL commit some sort of major crime in the future. we MUST do something and do it NOW. our veterans NEED HELP. their families need help. where is the public outcry? why is congress investigating steroid use in mlb? why the fuck aren't they doing something out THIS instead?

War Torn
Across America, Deadly Echoes of Foreign Battles
By DEBORAH SONTAG and LIZETTE ALVAREZ
Late one night in the summer of 2005, Matthew Sepi, a 20-year-old Iraq combat veteran, headed out to a 7-Eleven in the seedy Las Vegas neighborhood where he had settled after leaving the Army. This particular 7-Eleven sits in the shadow of the Stratosphere casino-hotel in a section of town called the Naked City. By day, the area, littered with malt liquor cans, looks depressed but not menacing. By night, it becomes, in the words of a local homicide detective, “like Falluja.”
Mr. Sepi did not like to venture outside too late. But, plagued by nightmares about an Iraqi civilian killed by his unit, he often needed alcohol to fall asleep. And so it was that night, when, seized by a gut feeling of lurking danger, he slid a trench coat over his slight frame — and tucked an assault rifle inside it. ........

The New York Times found 121 cases in which veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan committed a killing in this country, or were charged with one, after their return from war. In many of those cases, combat trauma and the stress of deployment — along with alcohol abuse, family discord and other attendant problems — appear to have set the stage for a tragedy that was part destruction, part self-destruction. Three-quarters of these veterans were still in the military at the time of the killing. More than half the killings involved guns, and the rest were stabbings, beatings, strangulations and bathtub drownings. Twenty-five offenders faced murder, manslaughter or homicide charges for fatal car crashes resulting from drunken, reckless or suicidal driving.

'VICTORY LAP'?

i'm not sure that is what king george thought he was doing OR that is the thought of the author of this article. if it IS king george's thought he is wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy more naked than we all thought

Bush Meets With Petraeus
In Kuwait, President Seems to Claim Vindication for 'Surge'

By Michael Abramowitz Washington Post Staff Writer
CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait, Jan. 12 -- President Bush ventured to this sprawling U.S. base near Iraq on Saturday to begin exploring further troop reductions with his top commander and take something of a victory lap over the country's improved security conditions a year after announcing "the surge."
Bush seemed anxious to avoid another moment similar to one in 2003 soon after the fall of Saddam Hussein, when he appeared on the USS Abraham Lincoln below a giant sign reading "Mission Accomplished." In a statement to reporters here, Bush spoke of the difficult challenges ahead, such as defeating the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq and reaching political reconciliation among Iraq's feuding sects. ........

ha

goo

(hat tip to bifurcated rivets)

would jesus drive a $350,000 bentley?

i don't think so.........
surprisingly enough REPUBLICAN senator charles e. grassley wants to know why some 'ministers' ARE

Senator's Inquiry Into Mega-Church Money Hypocrisy Sparks Church-State Showdown

By Rob Boston, Church and State
The New Testament reports that Jesus rarely used fancy modes of transportation to get around. He walked most of the time, although Matthew and other gospels mention that he once rode a borrowed donkey into Jerusalem, where he burst into a temple and tossed out the money changers.
Nearly 2,000 years later, some who claim to speak in Jesus' name are taking a different view. Consider Bishop Eddie Long, who pastors a mega-church in Lithonia, Ga. With a salary approaching $1 million a year and a nine-bathroom mansion situated on 20 acres, Long's choice of vehicles reflects his opulent lifestyle: He drives a $350,000 Bentley.
Far from casting out money changers, Long is likely to join them. In a 2005 profile in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, he defended his high-flying ways, insisting, "I pastor a multimillion dollar congregation. You've got to put me on a different scale than the little black preacher sitting over there that's supposed to be just getting by because the people are suffering."
Long's lack of humility has probably done him no favors. At the time, U.S. Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), expressed dismay.
"When I hear about leaders of charities being provided a $300,000 Bentley to drive around in, my fear is that it's the taxpayers who subsidize this charity who are really being taken for a ride," he quipped.......

i thought this was a great story

about two heroes. two doctors. two humanitarians, two brothers, TWO SOLDIERS
two people who decided to make a difference

Doctors' Double Duty in Afghanistan
Twins Born in Md. Honored For Their Humanitarian Work

By Avis Thomas-Lester Washington Post Staff Writer
The jet they had leased at their own expense and filled with medical supplies taxied to a stop at Kabul International Airport. On the runway, not 50 yards away, Vance Moss saw black smoke from the charred shell of a burning plane billowing into a blue sky.
He turned to his twin brother, Vince, who was just stirring from a nap. "Welcome to Afghanistan," he said. Later, Vance silently said a prayer: Please let us accomplish this.
The doctors, who are natives of Prince George's County, had decided in late 2005 to go on their own to treat civilians in the war-torn country. As members of the U.S. Army Reserve, they initially sought help from the military and the State Department but found no interest. So they worked connections until they found a military officer and an Afghan doctor willing to set them up.
They secured their visas, purchased medical supplies, found a translator, hired a jet and said goodbye to family and friends.......

736 million dollars

for a pile of steamin' shite. i've written about it before and i'm sure i'll be writing about it again. we built a 736 million dollar white elephant (i'm almost certain WE paid MORE than that though). no one is accountable. by no one i mean king george and his court. i don't mean a low level fall woman or man. how much would 736 million have helped the gulf coast victims? stem cell research? how many books would it buy for school systems? how many meals for the elderly? how many job training programs would it fund? you get the picture

yet king george is STILL on the loose and NO ONE is doing a DAMN THING ABOUT IT
Baghdad Embassy Is Called A Fire Risk
'Serious' Problems Were Ignored, Says State Dept. Official

By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer
The firefighting system in the massive $736 million embassy complex in Baghdad has potential safety problems that top U.S. officials dismissed in their rush to declare construction largely completed by the end of last year, according to internal State Department documents, e-mails and interviews.
Some officials assert that in the push to complete the long-delayed project, potentially life-threatening problems have been left untouched. "This is serious enough to get someone killed," said a State Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he feared retaliation. "The fire systems are the tip of the iceberg. That is the most visible. But no one has ever inspected the electrical system, the power plant" and other parts of the embassy complex, which will house more than 1,000 people and is vulnerable to mortar attacks. ......

they will stop at NOTHING

NOTHING i tell you. they are evil and liars and want to bomb the shite out of just about everyone. they want to take over the world!

who am i talking about? iran? NOT in this case (although i am no fan of the iranian government). i am talking about KING GEORGE AND HIS COURT. THE biggest bunch of lyin' weasels (again, i mean NO offense to weasels) on this goddess' earth

POLITICS-US: Official Version of Naval Incident Starts to UnravelAnalysis by Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON, Jan 10 (IPS) - Despite the official and media portrayal of the incident in the Strait of Hormuz early Monday morning as a serious threat to U.S. ships from Iranian speedboats that nearly resulted in a "battle at sea", new information over the past three days suggests that the incident did not involve such a threat and that no U.S. commander was on the verge of firing at the Iranian boats.The new information that appears to contradict the original version of the incident includes the revelation that U.S. officials spliced the audio recording of an alleged Iranian threat onto to a videotape of the incident. That suggests that the threatening message may not have come in immediately after the initial warning to Iranian boats from a U.S. warship, as appears to do on the video. Also unraveling the story is testimony from a former U.S. naval officer that non-official chatter is common on the channel used to communicate with the Iranian boats and testimony from the commander of the U.S. 5th fleet that the commanding officers of the U.S. warships involved in the incident never felt the need to warn the Iranians of a possible use of force against them. Further undermining the U.S. version of the incident is a video released by Iran Thursday showing an Iranian naval officer on a small boat hailing one of three ships. The Iranian commander is heard to say, "Coalition warship 73, this is Iranian navy patrol boat." He then requests the "side numbers" of the U.S. warships. A voice with a U.S. accent replies, "This is coalition warship 73. I am operating in international waters." The dramatic version of the incident reported by U.S. news media throughout Tuesday and Wednesday suggested that Iranian speedboats, apparently belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard navy, had made moves to attack three U.S. warships entering the Strait and that the U.S. commander had been on the verge of firing at them when they broke off. Typical of the network coverage was a story by ABC's Jonathan Karl quoting a Pentagon official as saying the Iranian boats "were a heartbeat from being blown up". ........

Furthermore, as the New York Times noted Thursday, the recording carries no ambient noise, such as the sounds of a motor, the sea or wind, which should have been audible if the broadcast had been made from one of the five small Iranian boats.

uh oh, this is a NO NO

and one would think the former attorney general AND the top fed prosecuter in joisey WOULD KNOW BETTER. what they DIDN'T KNOW is that it would be brought to the light of day. we'll just see if anything is done about it or not. as with EVERYTHING in king george's reign, everyone gets off scott free (or is that scooter free???)

Ashcroft Deal Brings Scrutiny in Justice Dept.

By PHILIP SHENON

WASHINGTON — When the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey needed to find an outside lawyer to monitor a large corporation willing to settle criminal charges out of court last fall, he turned to former Attorney General John Ashcroft, his onetime boss. With no public notice and no bidding, the company awarded Mr. Ashcroft an 18-month contract worth $28 million to $52 million.

That contract, which Justice Department officials in Washington learned about only several weeks ago, has prompted an internal inquiry into the department’s procedures for selecting outside monitors to police settlements with large companies.

The contract between Mr. Ashcroft’s consulting firm, the Ashcroft Group, and Zimmer Holdings, a medical supply company in Indiana, has also drawn the attention of Congressional investigators.

The New Jersey prosecutor, United States Attorney Christopher J. Christie, directed similar monitoring contracts last year to two other former Justice Department colleagues from the Bush administration, as well as to a former Republican state attorney general in New Jersey.,,,,,,,

now THIS is justice!

dang, this is GREAT

FBI wiretaps dropped due to unpaid bills

Lax FBI Money Controls Lead to Shutdown of Surveillance, Justice Department Audit Finds

LARA JAKES JORDAN

Telephone companies have cut off FBI wiretaps used to eavesdrop on suspected criminals because of the bureau's repeated failures to pay phone bills on time.

A Justice Department audit released Thursday blamed the lost connections on the FBI's lax oversight of money used in undercover investigations. In one office alone, unpaid costs for wiretaps from one phone company totaled $66,000.

In at least one case, a wiretap used in a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act investigation "was halted due to untimely payment," the audit found. FISA wiretaps are used in the government's most sensitive and secretive criminal and intelligence investigations, and allow eavesdropping on suspected terrorists or spies........

the nutmeg grater: a few words from ned

the nutmeg grater: a few words from ned

huh?

don't commit adultry in mississippi - that's fo sho. oh, and i wonder if it works the OTHER way around as well. could a woman sue a man who stepped out on her AND WIN?
Award stands for man who sued for theft of wife
A law still on the books in Mississippi entitles Johnny Valentine to over $750,000 from the man that his ex-wife Sandra ended up marrying, a judgment made final by the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to hear the case, previously upheld on the state level.

After then-named Sandra Valentine and businessman Jerry Fitch Sr. conceived a child during an affair, the Valentines divorced. Johnny then sued Fitch under the state's "alienation of affection" law, which entitles an abandoned spouse legal recourse for loss of companionship, love, and sex.......

what a downright stupid thing to say, to think

and to actually write down. NO decision like this, THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA should be made based on gender. it ABSOLUTELY should be made on WHO THE HELL CAN DO THE BEST JOB of RUNNING OUR COUNTRY. hillary cannot. i don't trust her and i don't think she did or is doing ANYTHING to get us out of iraq. i don't like her. i WILL NOT vote for her. don't demean me OR my gender by printing this shite

Young Feminists Split: Does Gender Matter?

By Eli Saslow

Washington Post Staff Writer

WELLESLEY, Mass. -- The two students walked on the same paths across campus here this week, past the dormitory where Hillary Rodham lived for four years, past two dozen framed portraits of groundbreaking women in Alumnae Hall, past the banners on the quad proclaiming "Wellesley: Women Who Will." But Katie Chanpong and Aubre Carreon Aguilar -- feminists and political activists -- arrived at contradictory conclusions.

"If you're a woman, you vote for Hillary because of what it means to women everywhere," said Chanpong, a sophomore.

Carreon Aguilar, a senior, said: "If I'm supposed to vote for Hillary just because I'm a woman, that's kind of sexist.".......

please stop by

obsidian wings

to see how you can help both the family of maj andrew olmsted and capt thomas casey. two true american heroes

How To Help
by hilzoy
A member of Andy Olmsted's family has just written me to say that if people want to do something in honor of him, they can send donations to a fund that has been set up for the four children of CPT Thomas Casey, who served under Andy and was killed while trying to help him. The address is here:
Capt. Thomas Casey Children’s fund
P.O. Box 1306
Chester, CA 96020
Thanks so much.
Also, below the fold I am going to try to compile a list of the blogs that linked to Andy's final post, so that his friends and family can see some of them without having to go to the trouble of tracking them all down. I'm going to do this gradually -- it will take a while. I've been bookmarking them since Friday, and I think there are nearly 500. However, if anyone notices a blog post that I haven't found by, say, noon tomorrow, just leave it in comments, or email the kitty or me.
I can't tell you how much I've appreciated everyone's willingness to put politics aside on the threads about Andy, and the way this entire community has responded. Special thanks to everyone who has emailed me about comments that need to be taken down -- there were too many comments in the various threads for any one human to keep track of, and it helped a lot. It meant a lot to me, and I think it would have meant a lot to Andy. Thanks to you all.
[Update: Do not click "more" unless you want to see the long and growing list of links to Andy's final post. If you don't, just click "comments".] ...................

my original posting

if you can, wear orange tomorrow

(for the record, i think terrorists INCLUDING DOMESTIC TERRORISTS SUCH AS THOSE WHO BLOW UP ABORTION CLINICS, should be locked up and have the key thrown away. for the record, i believe in the geneva convention and the constitution of the united states of america. for the record i believe in habeus corpus. for the record i do NOT believe in torture)

"We do not condone torture. I have never ordered torture. I will never order torture."— George W. Bush

Torture and indefinite detention are shamefully un-American.WEAR ORANGE January 11 and protest the shame that is Guantánamo Bay.

JANUARY 11, 2008, is the six-year anniversary of the first arrival of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay.

On January 11, we are calling on everyone opposed to torture and indefinite detention to WEAR ORANGE to symbolize their sadness and disgust with the national shame that is Guantánamo Bay.
Download the CLOSE GUANTÁNAMO Toolkit now to find out how you can organize for January 11 at home, in your office, on campus, in your community, and online. Learn More About Guantánamo >> .........

Inside Guantánamo

Text by Andrew Sullivan, Photos by Louie Palu

In his famous essay “A Hanging,” George Orwell wrote of witnessing an execution in British-run Burma:
It was about forty yards to the gallows. I watched the bare brown back of the prisoner marching in front of me … And once, in spite of the men who gripped him by each shoulder, he stepped slightly aside to avoid a puddle on the path. It is curious, but till that moment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man. .........

A member of the U.S. military reflected in rainwater in a detainee recreation area in Camp One. An arrow gives the direction and distance (12,793 kilometers) to Mecca for Muslim detainees who wish to worship. A leaked logbook of the interrogation of Mohammed al-Qahtani, a high-value detainee, records the following techniques: he was interrogated for 18 to 20 hours a day for 48 of 54 days; he was doused with water and kept in a room air-conditioned to induce hypothermia; he was hooded and menaced by a dog; he was injected with fluids and forced to urinate on himself. All of these interrogation methods were personally approved by then–Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.